Trust Inheritance Will Writing Service

KoreArabin

wise_fool wrote: »

Shhhh - don't tell anyone - but I am a trainee teaboy - my first aid course is next week - I'm not expected to do very well.



Since I quite clearly have no idea what I'm talking about - I shall leave this one for our private client aficionado to answer....KoreArabin where are you? - here's your chance to demonstrate you're not a troll.

Of course I'm not a troll. Calling someone a troll because you can't refute what they're saying is the [pretty common] internet equivalent of putting one's fingers in one's ears and going, "Lalalala - I'm not listening!"

For what it's worth, I've looked at some of LocalHero's posts and his advice does seem to be quite sound, so perhaps there are some reputable will writers around, after all!

As a newbie, I can't post links, but if you go to the STEP website, you will see a button on the left hand side marked "Find A Practitioner".

Individual solicitors are listed, rather than firms, and the address given would usually be the firm's address, unless of course they work from home.

There are different routes to STEP qualification. Most older STEP members would have become members automatically because of their years of experience when STEP was first set up, so they would not have had to pass any exams. The more recent routes to membership depend on how much experience one has had, but would normally involve passing four exams (Estate Law and Admin, Trust Law and Admin, Taxation and Trust Accounting) or completing four theses, with titles like, "In the light of recent trends discuss the options available to disappointed beneficiaries with regard to poorly drafted and/or inappropriate wills", and "Discuss and explain the concept of sham in relation to off-shore trusts. Include reference to how such a situation can arise and how, in practical terms, it can best be avoided".

Not stuff for the faint-hearted!

John_Pierpoint

http://www.step.org/findapractitioner

I tried the prefix from my postal code and got 14 hits, these solicitors represented 12 firms (one in the Bahamas).

It is a well established observation that two heads are better than one, when it comes to knowledge work (that is why this forum is so useful)

So then I tried searching again by firm against a firm that I knew had moved in the last year - Oh dear they have left a third someone behind; locked in the broom cupboard?

Seriously this is a useful link as it offers further links & insights into problems that beset the rich.
There is also a forum where solicitors argue out the "how many angels can dance on a pin head" type of issues created by HMRC becoming a major beneficiary of many people's estates.

http://lm.lyris.co.uk/read/?forum=trusts_discussion_forum

(Lots of problems being created by folks buying property in overseas juristictions)

KoreArabin

Oh, how odd - it appears to work very well for me!

The Trusts Discussion Forum is actually a very useful resource, as some very well-respected lawyers post regularly. Less highbrow, but more practical, advice is to be found through Solicitors For The Elderly.

John_Pierpoint

Nothing functionally wrong with the link that I could find - in fact it is very good
http://www.step.org/findapractitioner
but like everything on the web, it is hard work keeping it up to date.
Interesting discussion about "remote" wills. Solicitors worried that there could be identity fraud, and money laundering.
Have you come across these people:
http://www.tracesmartcorporate.co.uk/

For the record "Which?" appear to do a single will for 79 GBP and a pair of mirror wills for 119 GBP (quote voucher code
WH-WANDP at the payment stage) remotely..

sloughflint

Time for an update:

RiskyBusiness wrote: »

Wait...there's more... they are also forming an organisation called the Fellowship of Professional Will Writers. It will be a self regulating body

You were absolutely right about this. Another poster posted the following on another thread:

Baggysdad wrote: »

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.

http://www.eps-wills.co.uk/index.html

Unlike other Willwriting companies, Estate Protection Services are proud to say, that all our Will Consultants have undergone rigorous examinations and are individually regulated by the Fellowship of Professional Willwriters and Probate Practitioners. The FPWPP are a totally independent organisation that set the standards that EPS work to.

:rotfl:

But it's not funny though, is it?
Some further links:
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/

sloughflint

localhero wrote: »

In any case this thread is about rogue willwriters,

And very educational on how they tend to operate:

When they get into trouble, they just pop up again under a new name. Here's another one:

KoreArabin wrote: »

You can google for the horror story about two firms of Will Writers (JHD Associates from Oakham in Rutland and Personal Asset Protection from Inworth near Colchester, Essex), who dumped their clients' wills in a barn, for example

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/opinion/article.html?in_article_id=452465&in_page_id=19&in_author_id=5

Update: JHD Associates
In 2001, I warned that anyone thinking of having their will drawn up would be wise to steer clear of Gerald Malcolm Barton. Trading as JHD Associates, he charged £160 to prepare a will and another £25 to store it in the 'national archives'.
Customers assumed this meant Somerset House --they were half right. Barton's firm actually dumped 10,000 wills in a barn in Somerset. He then vanished, leaving a further 4,500 wills littering his offices in Oakham, Rutland.
Since then, Barton has run two more failed will-writing firms. The most recent, Nationwide Legal Services Limited ( see post 35), was closed down last year after a probe by the Government's Companies Investigation Branch. And now the Insolvency Service has handed Barton an 11-year ban from acting as a director of any UK company.
Paul Sharpe of the Institute of Professional Willwriters said: 'If a mistake is made in a will, it is not realised until after the consumer dies and then it is too late to rewrite it.'

sloughflint

KoreArabin wrote: »

I think you'll find that most solicitors who undertake will-related work are members of STEP,

What a strange thing to write. The search faciltiy gives a different picture.

hibs1966 wrote: »

Finally, next time you compare a £49 Will (Will Writer) to a £100 Will (Solicitor) think what is at risk and the problems a lack of knowledge and skill could cause.

Oh I'm all too aware of what is at risk and the problems a lack of knowledge and skill from solicitors can cause. That is why at various points in this thread I have specifically mentioned STEP solicitors.

jimmo wrote: »

In my own professional experience (Income Tax and especially Capital Gains Tax) I have come across a few solicitors who really knew their stuff but, quite frankly, I have come across very many more solicitors who didn’t have a clue and were too arrogant to recognise that they were beyond their professional expertise.

I quite agree Jimmo. Firms may well have STEP members within their Wills and Probate departments but isn't it a shame to have to insist to individuals that they need to consult their better qualified colleagues and to be proved right?

wise_fool wrote: »

The Legal Services Board will be looking at regulation in 2010 - the sooner the better.

Hear hear.

SeniorSam

Very well said. All people should be aware that there are many ripoff merchants and slick salesmen still about. Seek initial free advice from solicitors or Independent Financial Advisers

Sam

wise_fool

Hey Korearabin, your STEP expertise is required on this thread:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2154113&highlight=iht

sloughflint

Continuing my aim to keep info on one thread, I'll copy a recent post from another part of the forum

funnyguy wrote: »

Where there is a Will is there a way to not be charged again?About 3 years ago I purchased a WILL from Legacy and Law.I have just received a letter from them saying that 'all wills should now be page numbered and signed by the Testator and Witnesses on each and every page',and to do this I need to send £60[which is what I originally paid anyway..Is this an ombudsman case? or what other options have I?

A search on Legacy and Law Ltd names its manager as Walter Ventriglia:
http://www.creditcrunchadvisor.co.uk/legacy-and-law-ltd-115809.html

Interesting article here linking the individual to the JHD firm discussed in posts 99 and 80.

As the article says, it's just another con to get money out of individuals.

Will they heck.
Legacy & Law's letter is false, irresponsible rubbish that can only have been issued in an attempt to squeeze more cash out of the firm's existing, often elderly, customers. It is quite simply untrue. But don't take my word for it. Here is what the Probate Office had to say when I asked about the need for wills to be rewritten. 'This is definitely not the case,' it said. 'There has been no change to the law.
'Wills need to be signed and witnessed at the back, but they do not need to have every page numbered and they do not need to be signed on every page.'