Will Aid: Get a free will in November

syordanova

Whether large or small, a legacy gift to the British Red Cross is a wonderful way that you can help to ensure that we will be there, years from now, to care for people in crisis.

rurallouise

Io07 wrote: »

Hi
I've just bought a "make a will" kit off whsmith. does anyone know how these compare with a solicitors?
I know I'll get tailored advice and hopefully benefit from the solicitors experience but..
we're pretty sure our circumstances will change hugely in the next 2-3 years- house move + better pay for both (and therefore more/different investments)+ and hopefully a second child(fingers crossed!)

Our finances are pretty well sorted albeit a tad complex....just don't want to spend on a second will/change the first after only 2-3 years.

Pls be gentle if i'm being naive!

Home-made wills cause LOTS of problems - what you think may be a simple provision may not be thought through properly, and cause your next-of-kin lots of angst

Your solicitors job is not just to draw up the will but to advise you on your options and help you think about what you want - they will do that under the Will Aid scheme. They should build in provisions to cover likely changes in circumstances - a second child and house move will not make a difference to a properly written will

By the way, anyone who asks for a will to be drawn up and makes a low donation (or worse still, none at all) is totally out of order - would you steal from a charity, which is what you are in effect doing if you make no donation, by taking the service and not paying for it?

mrcoxexcel

moon-pig wrote: »

That is exactly what we did. In fact we used the services of someone who regularly posts on this forum. The firm was properly qualified and insured and offered us the convenience of coming round to our home one evening to take our instructions. The fee for a single Will is still only £75 or for a couple £120 and there were no hidden extras.

The solicitors we had previously contacted, quoted us almost £1000 for what we required. Remember also that the solicitors involved in Willaid will only supply the most basic of Wills for their fee - they will be looking to charge extra for anything else they can, or try and get themselves appointed as your executors. Like another poster says, it is clever marketing to get you through their door.
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My own personal experience is : the problem with "will writers" is often that they are amateurs with no real grasp of the legalities of will writing - despite their claim to be experts in the field and / or to have the services of a solicitor. There are so many jumping on this bandwagon now - and few, if any, with any training or real understanding. Again, they charge relatively little initially, store the will for you (at a cost), persuade you to name their company as executors (and so gain significantly further down the line - often on a fixed percentage basis which works out rather more than a solicitor) and return annually to persuade you to update your will - again, at a cost. When you die your loved ones find a poorly written will with impossible clauses (it may make complete sense to you but the legal-speak is missing and so much is often invalid) - it then takes ages to sort out, your wishes are not met properly and the whole thing then requires the services of a real solicitor - an expert in the field. I think it is the best idea to use a recommended solicitor to write your will - one with long standing expertise in this area. Will Aid - possibly - but do go on recommendations. Most important is to actually have a will - even one from WH Smith is better than none at all.

sloughflint

mrcoxexcel wrote: »

My own personal experience is : the problem with "will writers" is often that they are amateurs with no real grasp of the legalities of will writing - despite their claim to be experts in the field and / or to have the services of a solicitor. There are so many jumping on this bandwagon now - and few, if any, with any training or real understanding. Again, they charge relatively little initially, store the will for you (at a cost), persuade you to name their company as executors (and so gain significantly further down the line - often on a fixed percentage basis which works out rather more than a solicitor) and return annually to persuade you to update your will - again, at a cost.

I’m sure a lot of people will have seen the prominent TV ads for this company that a few of us got rather vocal about in this thread the other day.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=805099

There are several companies that get mentioned on MSE for behaving just as you describe.

mrcoxexcel wrote: »

When you die your loved ones find a poorly written will with impossible clauses (it may make complete sense to you but the legal-speak is missing and so much is often invalid) - it then takes ages to sort out, your wishes are not met properly and the whole thing then requires the services of a real solicitor - an expert in the field. I think it is the best idea to use a recommended solicitor to write your will - one with long standing expertise in this area. Will Aid - possibly - but do go on recommendations. Most important is to actually have a will - even one from WH Smith is better than none at all.

I totally agree with you. And even when things go wrong, trying to find a solicitor properly capable to deal with the mess can be problematic in itself.
You say use a recommended solicitor with a long standing expertise. I’m sorry to report that even experience is not a guarantee for good service (competence).

For me, a major criterion would have to be appropriate qualification.Interesting discussion on this within this thread:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1120993

FWISW after reading some of the posts in this thread, I’m not so sure this scheme is such a good idea if I have understood it correctly:

1. You are limited to a few participating solicitors in your area who may not all work ethically ( ie post 51) and may not be as competent as people assume all solicitors will be.
2. You are limited to a narrow timeframe
3. You are limited to a narrow choice of charities and the donation is shared between them all.

Perhaps an alternative might be to leave a small legacy to charity especially if people can't afford to donate much at the moment .
For example:

https://www.oxfam.org.uk/donate/legacy/who_write.html

The charity suggests using a STEP solicitor or a qualified will writer recognised by a professional body.
That body they mention is pushing for regulation of the whole will-writing industry. I hope it is successful because something needs to be done to protect the unsuspecting.

willaid_press_officer

Just to point out that when you make your will with Will Aid, the donations are shared between the 9 participating charities but you are totally free to make a legacy to any charity or good cause. Having said that you are not under pressure to make any legacy at all although they do provide vital income for charities.
On the subject of solicitors versus will-writers - at least if you use a solicitor you do have recourse to the Law Society (England and Wales, Scotland & N. Ireland) if you have a problem.

Baggysdad

Nobody does anything for free these days - least of all a solicitor.

So where's the catch?

Well, as stated a few times in this thread - its in the administration of the estate. Solicitors have wide ranging powers to charge for the administration of the estate. Some charge on a time spent basis - so the slower and more incompetent they are - the bigger the bill. Others charge a % of the estate - so the fee thy get is based on how wealthy you are - not on the amount of work they need to do to sort your affairs.

And they don't need to be appointed as executors. As long as the solicitor is holding onto the original will (unsurprisingly, they will keep it for 'free') they are in a position of power. When your grief stricken relatives go to the solicitor to reclaim the Will, they'll get a 5 minute chat about how difficult things will be. Unsurprisingly, the solicitor will have a solution - they will take all of the troubles off your distraught relatives hands. And they'll reclaim the cost of doing so, along with the cost of the Will, done for free, and the cost of storing it, done for free and a shed load of profit from your estate.

Go for this scheme by all means - but please don't think you are on to a winner. You are not. I am surprised this scheme got promotion by MSE.

sloughflint

willaid_press_officer wrote: »

Just to point out that when you make your will with Will Aid, the donations are shared between the 9 participating charities but you are totally free to make a legacy to any charity or good cause. Having said that you are not under pressure to make any legacy at all although they do provide vital income for charities.

Your scheme is certainly trying to do two extremely worthwhile things:

• Encourage people to get wills written
• Bring revenue to charities

However, the considerable narrowing of options of who one can approach causes me some concern.
Looking at the website, out of the 10 options ( small in itself) available to my postcode, only one person was a STEP member and that was 11 miles away.

willaid_press_officer wrote: »

On the subject of solicitors versus will-writers - at least if you use a solicitor you do have recourse to the Law Society (England and Wales, Scotland & N. Ireland) if you have a problem.

Indeed you do have recourse to the SRA if executors are lucky enough to spot problems after the death of a loved one but think of all the many wills which will have been written in the meantime by incompetent practitioners.

Whilst it is important that there should be a redress system (BTW I'd have thought unhappy customers of the will writers could equally approach their professional body if they are dissatisfied), it is more important that people are confident of the competence/good conduct at the outset.

The distinct impression that I am getting is that these bad will-writing companies are giving all will writers a bad name.I can't imagine Oxfam would recommend IPW as an alternative to STEP if that body was no good.

moon-pig_2

sloughflint wrote:

The distinct impression that I am getting is that these bad will-writing companies are giving all will writers a bad name.I can't imagine Oxfam would recommend IPW as an alternative to STEP if that body was no good.

I had never heard of the IPW before reading the posts of a member who posts regularly on this forum and had assumed that all willwriters are the same.

I was thoroughly impressed with the professionalism and the service I received from the member I used, surpassing my own expectations and my experiences with solicitors in the past.

Since all members of the IPW have to pass an exam to join, have regular training and be insured, it didn't surprise me that most willwriters don't take the trouble to join.

I couldn't believe it when I learnt that anybody could set up a business as a willwriter without any training whatsoever. Surely the government should regulate the profession to drive out all the bad guys who are giving the good guys a bad name.

wend33

moon-pig wrote: »

There are often very good reasons to own the property as tenants in common, and a decent willwriter wouldn't do it for no reason.

You are right, one co-owner can place a restriction at the Land Registry for nothing, but they would also want to see some evidence that the other co-owner has been informed - so there would be an additional document for this. In addition a third document - an agreement which confirms the exact shares owned by the parties should be signed and kept with the wills.

It is likely most people wouldn't be able to do all of that themselves which is why we paid our willwriter £75 to do it for us.

I would though advise that you obtain the services of a decent willwriter, as they are not all the same - ours is a member of the Institute of Professional Willwriters.

My comment was just to do with the LR fees as I have seen people charged for them on top of the severance of joint tenancy deed. The severance can be mutual too without the need for service by one owner on the other. Also, most couples would not go to the lengths of an additional trust deed setting out the shares unless they had a specific reason to.

trixybess

Baggysdad wrote: »

Nobody does anything for free these days - least of all a solicitor.

So where's the catch?

Well, as stated a few times in this thread - its in the administration of the estate. Solicitors have wide ranging powers to charge for the administration of the estate. Some charge on a time spent basis - so the slower and more incompetent they are - the bigger the bill. Others charge a % of the estate - so the fee thy get is based on how wealthy you are - not on the amount of work they need to do to sort your affairs.

And they don't need to be appointed as executors. As long as the solicitor is holding onto the original will (unsurprisingly, they will keep it for 'free') they are in a position of power. When your grief stricken relatives go to the solicitor to reclaim the Will, they'll get a 5 minute chat about how difficult things will be. Unsurprisingly, the solicitor will have a solution - they will take all of the troubles off your distraught relatives hands. And they'll reclaim the cost of doing so, along with the cost of the Will, done for free, and the cost of storing it, done for free and a shed load of profit from your estate.

Go for this scheme by all means - but please don't think you are on to a winner. You are not. I am surprised this scheme got promotion by MSE.

I thought they hold your will for free you just tell whoever is your executor what solicitor has your will and when your dead they just pick it up and take it from there I made a will and told my bruv he was the man to get it if I died and that I also wanted to be burned and not buried the more people you tell in your family the better so that they know once you have gone