Advice re: wills & executors please.

monkey_spank

I wonder how many people will be reassured by the association this firm has with its so called professional membership.

Quite a lot a reckon :eek: - what an absolute disgrace. How on earth does the law allow this to go on?

money_smart

Yesterday morning i was dismissed by this company for not bringing in the sales as a 'consultant' after a month of working for the company. I wouldn't have brought a will from them & it's a bit of a joke that they're advertising for 'ethical will writers' ... this company are ANYTHING BUT ethical! They will charge for anything other than a 'standard will' & their prices have just GONE UP-i recieved the new price structure in the post last week of which to set up a childrens trust is 30 pound, p.p. Powers of attorney has gone up by a 100 pounds to 400 in total p.p! To avoid care home fees is something they like to push as it's a big money maker for them with proprty transfers, charges to handle stamp duty & anyother charge they can. They are still pushing their 'insurance' which is crap as what most of us would class as an update to our lives, (ie. marriage) EPS wouldn't so would make you redo the whole will at an extra charge.

STEER CLEAR & GO TO A SOLICITOR, take it from an insider who knows.

value_seeker

Thanks moneysmart:
Any info to help people get their money back from these people would, I am sure, be appreciated.
There are ways and means of putting a missold case together against this company and I understand they are not the brightest buttons in the box when dealing with anyone. They regulate themselves or proport to - I just wish the press would get hold of these people in order to expose their way of working. Any ideas welcomed - perhaps a "Buyer Beware" letter to a newspaper letters page in the geographic area.....worded very carefully of course!!

money_smart

All i can think of is to report them to rogue traders or alike, i think this would be beneficial in particular concerning one 'consultant' i've been told about within the company who apparently still goes round to ppl's houses & pressures them into a sale & if they don't, he sets up camp in their house & refuses to leave until they buy that evening. If they could catch him I think the company would have real problems. I wanted to join the company to make ppl aware of where their money goes if they die intestate as it shocked me when i found out but this company screw their staff over, let alone the public they attract at the shopping centres, which can be anything up to 20 ppl per shopping centre, per day! They are STILL ripping ppl off by deception at an alarming rate.

I'm really angry with the bunch of cowboys but more so than revenge, i want to warn ppl against them.

Katie-Kat-Kins

Just a point regarding how to find a REPUTABLE professional to write your will.

A previous poster said that solicitors are not required to undertake any exams or training in will writing to be able to offer this service. This is correct, solicitors once qualified can practice in any area they choose, and during training are only required to sit exams in certain subjects (business, accounts, conveyancing, litigation plus three optional subjects). Once qualified they can practice in any area they choose, or as many areas as they choose. In theory having done a conveyancing exam 20 years ago and never looked at a property deed since they can deal with a sale and purchase perfectly legally, alternatively they could deal with a divorce, personal injury claim or unfair dismissal having had no formal training whatsoever.

Most reputable firms would not allow this and have rigorous supervision, training and quality control in place to ensure you get an excellent service from all their lawyers. A good way to locate a "good" firm with good standards and an excellent record is to check the legal 500 on line. This recomends the best firm for each type of work in each geographical area.

However something that people often forget is that for many services a legal executive can offer an equally good service more cheaply. The institute of legal executives have their own database of qualified legal executives which can be searched by specialism. Unlike solicitors legal executives only practice in one or two defined areas of specialism and are required to have ongoing training in those areas. If they subsequently wish to change specialism they have to undergo further training.

Many of the public do not fully understand the role of legal executives, but they essentially do all the same jobs as solicitors but have qualified via a different route. Many are found in Probate and Conveyancing but they can work in any area. They are often people who have come to the career later in life and prefer the more "on the job" training methods of ILEX to the very expensive classroom based courses favoured by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. If you are looking for someone to write a will for you if you search for a legal executive specialising in wills and probate then you will know that you are dealing with a highly trained professional who undergoes several hours of continuing professional development focussed on wills and probate each year.

localhero

If you are looking for someone to write a will for you if you search for a legal executive specialising in wills and probate then you will know that you are dealing with a highly trained professional who undergoes several hours of continuing professional development focussed on wills and probate each year.

....Or visit the Institute of Professional Willwriters at www.ipw.org.uk to find members in your area that have demonstrated their expertise by passing a compulsory exam in the subject as well as having to complete ongoing training and be fully insured.

localhero

devilshaircut007 wrote:

The ipw write their own examinations they have no acreditation or standard, they self regulate and assure prospective members upon signing up they will pass the examinations so you can be a builder one day and a willwriter the next.

You are incorrect.

Whilst the law allows anyone to `be a builder one day and a willwriter the next`, anyone wanting to join the IPW must have sufficient training and know-how to pass the entrance exam, and as far as I am aware the exams are marked independently.

The IPW certainly wouldn't give that type of assurance as the entrance exam is far from easy, and in any case I'm sure they wouldn't want members that were not fully committed to providing a professional, ethical service.

The IPW is the only willwriting organisation that demands that its members must demonstrate their expertise before they can join and thereafter with compulsory annual training solely in the subject of wills and the surrounding areas of law - unlike the law society for example, whose members can undertake training in whatever area of law they want.

On the subject of regulation, yes, the IPW self regulates along with all the other professional bodies.

Remember that it is not compulsory for willwriters to join the IPW, so until the government actually decides on the subject of regulation the consumer has no way of knowing whether their will is fit for purpose.

I will add also, the consumer has the added protection that the IPW is the only professional organisation who has a code of conduct that meets with the approval from the Office of Fair Trading.

http://www.oft.gov.uk/news/press/2008/58-08

wise_fool

devilshaircut007 wrote: »

The ipw write their own examinations they have no acreditation or standard, they self regulate and assure prospective members upon signing up they will pass the examinations so you can be a builder one day and a willwriter the next.

Devilshaircut - I did wonder why you would bother to revive an old thread and make such an inflammatory comment until I read your other post.

It transpires that you have some involvement with a rival will writing organisation whose directors were involved in the disgraced Estate Protection Services that baggysdad mentions in post no 41.

The same people that were directors of a firm in which their co director was struck off by the Law Society for appointing himself and/or their company as executors in wills provided by the company who have formed a new company to carry on doing the same under a new company name which doesn't have the associations with the old company. On top of that they have formed a professional organisation to give themselves the credibility that they cannot get from already established organisations.

Not content with the Sunday Mercury, they've found their way to Page 1 of the Law Society Gazette:

http://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/aspiring-will-writing-regulator039s-colourful-past-revealed

http://www.sundaymercury.net/news/midlands-news/2008/08/17/10-000-wills-frozen-in-midlands-solicitors-probe-66331-21549253/

Aha it is all becoming a bit clearer now.

sloughflint

devilshaircut007 wrote: »

The ipw write their own examinations they have no acreditation or standard, they self regulate and assure prospective members upon signing up they will pass the examinations so you can be a builder one day and a willwriter the next.

devilshaircut007 wrote: »

As a Professional Willwriter myself, I have found that fpwpp training specialists ltd to be very useful. They are looking towards regulating the industry, which in my opinion from previous experience is definately the way forward. We have all heard the horror stories of rogue willwriters giving the industry a bad name. Fpwpp provide from what I can see total training solutions backed by Edexel who are a leading training provide... I'm looking forward to working with them to gain a nationally recogised qualification

That's interesting. Googling this gave:http://www.fpwpp-training.co.uk/

We work closely with the Fellowship of Professional Willwriters & Probate Practitioners to deliver the relevant training for the profession.

Have a little read of this thread ( especially post 43) before crawling back into your hole.

Baggysdad

An update on my post 41.

I have done another search at Companies House.

Things have changed yet again in the ownership of these businesses.

The shareholders in Estate Protection Services Limited (EPS) - previously called Solicitors Probate Services Limited (SPS) are:
Anthony Watson
Emma Hodges
Ann Adams
James Ahern
Jagtar Singh Mann
Chris Sealy

The partners in the Fellowship of Professional Willwriters and Probate Practitioners are:
Anthony Watson
Emma Hodges
Ann Adams
James Ahern
Jagtar Singh Mann
Chris Sealy

The sole shareholder in Fellowship of Professional Willwriters Training Limited is Sarah Watson - who lives at the same address as Anthony Watson.

All very cosy.


Now I suppose devilshaircit007 might point to the fact that the Fellowship of Professional Willwriters and Probate Practitioners has an independent regulatory board. But I have been doing a bit of Googling and found that its Chairman is Paul Broad - a solicitor who works at Brownings Solicitors in Redditch. Brownings is the firm which represented SPS when they crossed swords with the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Another member of the regulatory board is an accountant, Peter Ormerod. I wonder if he has any link to the accountancy firm Ormerod Rutter, which prepares the accounts for Estate Protection Services Limited?

All very cosy.


The Fellowship may have duped Edexcel into awarding them training status - my wife is a teacher and she tells me Edexcel are desperate for business and Edexcel approval is no great shakes. Lets hope that those who appoint regulators don't fall for the same con.