Trust Inheritance Will Writing Service

Seems a bit pricey my Dad and my uncle were the executors of my Gran's will and while there is a lot to do upon death the executor doesn't have to do it all and in the case of a solicitor acting as executor I doubt they ever do.
Her estate was in the region of £750K and whilst I do remember there being a couple of things that a solicitor had to do I know for sure the bill wasn't anywhere near even the £17,600 mark.
My Dad is no legal eagle and he managed to carry out the job ok.

ilanshefer wrote: »

Mark - I was a consultant for Trust Inheritance for a year - I only left because my acting career took off. A con it is certainly NOT. They are a very reputable company and professional. The fees they charge for the Wills for Life service is extremely competitive and although it is impossible to say whether any cash savings will be made in the long run (due to everyone's individual circumstances), they will certainly alleviate any burden that your family will have. The peace of mind is worth the price and for sure the 1% is a great deal for estate administration.

Whilst they may be reputable, will they be around in 20 years or more time when your executors come to call on the services you have pre-paid for? If they are will they still be reputable?

In general it is not wise to appoint a solicitor or bank or other professional as executor in your will. You appoint a relative or friend. They then have the choice of doing the job themselves at low cost (and it isn't actually that difficult) or choosing and appointing their own professional help at a price they negotiate. Don't tie them down.

1% of a fairly modest estate is still a lot to pay for a bit of simple clerical work. Banks (in particular) and solicitors get away with murder.

How interesting, I actually am currently employed by Trust Inheritance and would like to make a few pointers:

Every one agrees that when it comes to Estate Administration Banks are rather expensive, latest information from HSBC states: £750 set up fee plus 3% of the first £300,000 plus 1% of anything else above £300,000 plus VAT.....please note HSBC minimum charge for executing an Estate is £2,000 plus VAT.....they are not the cheapest yet they are by far not the most expensive.

Plenty of information at http://www.ifishoulddie.co.uk

Solicitors will charge by the hour and the maximum hourly rates are fixed by the Law Society.....one local (to me) solicitor quotes £135 ph for Legal Executive (please read: young lady at reception who answers phones and does typing) and £170 for a Probate Specialist, with additional charge of 1/2% of the value of the house the deceased lived in plus 1% of the remainder plus VAT plus disbursements.

Trust Inheritance offers their clients a Personal Estate Plan membership that will give them a bit more than expected.

• Free legal advice to the member for any estate they have an interest in (includes all the estates this member is an executor for), and this advice is available for as long as it takes to wind up the Estate in question.
• Free legal advise to the members executors, again for as long as it takes to wind up the estate.
• Free set up of any Trust which is required following the will's instructions (remember that people under the age of 18 can not legally sign a receipt, so any inheritance to a minor has to go into Trust, one of these costs £500).
• Free legal advice on how to manage a Trust.
• Lifetime storage of the wills and unlimited updates to the wills.
• 10% discount on any funeral arranged by the member or for the member when such funeral is booked via DIGNITY.
• Free bereavement counselling.

All this for an upfront payment of £2,500, and the cost can be spread over a number of years.

Potential saving of: £250 if two wills are to be stored for 20 years; £100 for a couple of updates to the will; £1,700 for legal advice for 5 hours each death; £6,000 based on an Estate valued at £300,000 administered twice; £500 when the Trust to save the property from Care Home Fees is set up; £300 saving on 5 years of accountant fee for administering the Trust; £500 saving on two funerals; £200 saving on 4 hours of bereavement counselling. Total £9,550...and this is a very conservative figure.

By the way, nobody else in Probate World offers this type of service!

expertlinguist wrote: »

How interesting, I actually am currently employed by Trust Inheritance and would like to make a few pointers:

Every one agrees that when it comes to Estate Administration Banks are rather expensive, latest information from HSBC states: £750 set up fee plus 3% of the first £300,000 plus 1% of anything else above £300,000 plus VAT.....please note HSBC minimum charge for executing an Estate is £2,000 plus VAT.....they are not the cheapest yet they are by far not the most expensive.

Plenty of information at http://www.ifishoulddie.co.uk

Solicitors will charge by the hour and the maximum hourly rates are fixed by the Law Society.....one local (to me) solicitor quotes £135 ph for Legal Executive (please read: young lady at reception who answers phones and does typing) and £170 for a Probate Specialist, with additional charge of 1/2% of the value of the house the deceased lived in plus 1% of the remainder plus VAT plus disbursements.

Trust Inheritance offers their clients a Personal Estate Plan membership that will give them a bit more than expected.

• Free legal advice to the member for any estate they have an interest in (includes all the estates this member is an executor for), and this advice is available for as long as it takes to wind up the Estate in question.
• Free legal advise to the members executors, again for as long as it takes to wind up the estate.
• Free set up of any Trust which is required following the will's instructions (remember that people under the age of 18 can not legally sign a receipt, so any inheritance to a minor has to go into Trust, one of these costs £500).
• Free legal advice on how to manage a Trust.
• Lifetime storage of the wills and unlimited updates to the wills.
• 10% discount on any funeral arranged by the member or for the member when such funeral is booked via DIGNITY.
• Free bereavement counselling.

All this for an upfront payment of £2,500, and the cost can be spread over a number of years.

Potential saving of: £250 if two wills are to be stored for 20 years; £100 for a couple of updates to the will; £1,700 for legal advice for 5 hours each death; £6,000 based on an Estate valued at £300,000 administered twice; £500 when the Trust to save the property from Care Home Fees is set up; £300 saving on 5 years of accountant fee for administering the Trust; £500 saving on two funerals; £200 saving on 4 hours of bereavement counselling. Total £9,550...and this is a very conservative figure.

You’ve revived an old thread to give what looks like a sales spiel.

£250 if two wills are to be stored for 20 years….You can store Wills at the probate office for a small one off fee of £15
http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/cms/1202.htm
£1,700 for legal advice for 5 hours each death…. Which may not be required and anyway you can call the probate helpline for FREE
£6,000 based on an Estate valued at £300,000 administered twice…OP mentioned £2600 plus 1% so no saving here
£500 when the Trust to save the property from Care Home Fees is set up….Shouldn’t this be part of the Will?
£300 saving on 5 years of accountant fee for administering the Trust…Maybe but how would we know that Trust inheritance is up to the job? Nothing on website.
£200 saving on 4 hours of bereavement counselling….Not everyone needs bereavement counselling
£500 saving on two funerals…but tied to ‘dignity’

I would urge anyone to name trusted friends or family members to be executors. They can then choose to seek professional help if they need to rather than being tied to a company that may not even exist in the future.

Here is an example where an incompetent solicitor is named executor and the difficulties this has created:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1120993

I don’t think I would ever have considered this company since from the website it is not clear who the company is answerable to if things go wrong .

Certainly if I was given the above sales pitches ( OP and above), I’d have politely shown the person the door.

expertlinguist wrote: »

.one local (to me) solicitor quotes £135 ph for Legal Executive (please read: young lady at reception who answers phones and does typing)

As for your charming description of a legal executive, your company prefers to say this:

Legal Executives are qualified lawyers specialising in a particular area of law. They will have passed the ILEX Professional Qualification in Law in an area of legal practice to the same level as that required of solicitors, visit: www.ilex.org.uk.

For the record: I came across this forum as I was doing a bit of research on line, and as an employee of Trust Inheritance I thought I should expand a bit more on some of the services that we offer, if it comes across as a sell spiel than be it, I never thought that drumming up business for one's employer was wrong....but I might be.

One thing is quite evident is that not every one actually read the bullet points very well, jus to re-iterate:

• Free legal advice to the member for any estate they have an interest in (includes all the estates this member is an executor for), and this advice is available for as long as it takes to wind up the Estate in question.
• Free legal advise to the members executors, again for as long as it takes to wind up the estate.
• Free set up of any Trust which is required following the will's instructions (remember that people under the age of 18 can not legally sign a receipt, so any inheritance to a minor has to go into Trust, one of these costs £500).
• Free legal advice on how to manage a Trust.
• Lifetime storage of the wills and unlimited updates to the wills.
• 10% discount on any funeral arranged by the member or for the member when such funeral is booked via DIGNITY.
• Free bereavement counselling.

Now to answer sloughflint point by point:

£250 if two wills are to be stored for 20 years….You can store Wills at the probate office for a small one off fee of £15 True, so two wills £30
http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/cms/1202.htm
£1,700 for legal advice for 5 hours each death…. Which may not be required and anyway you can call the probate helpline for FREE Probate Court Staff are very helpful, but can not give legal advice, which one will need as soon as there are competing claims on the estate
£6,000 based on an Estate valued at £300,000 administered twice…OP mentioned £2600 plus 1% so no saving here OP reference is to the cost charged by Trust Inheritance to actually be the executors of the estate, which is a separate "product"
£500 when the Trust to save the property from Care Home Fees is set up….Shouldn’t this be part of the Will? The will is set up as a Will Trust, no money is payable unless the Trust is set up, which it would not if the second spouse died within 31 days of the first
£300 saving on 5 years of accountant fee for administering the Trust…Maybe but how would we know that Trust inheritance is up to the job? Nothing on website. Obviously being a Corporate Trust has got nothing to do with it
£200 saving on 4 hours of bereavement counselling….Not everyone needs bereavement counselling I am glad to know that nothing will touch your feelings
£500 saving on two funerals…but tied to ‘dignity’ which are an association of Funeral Directors whose prices are in line with the "market", just google them, enter your postcode and you'll see.

Anyhow, I never said that TI is better than solicitors, except that sloughflint does mention that some solicitors are not up to the task, even those specializing in probate.....OK, who to go next then? The Post Office with £3.50 for a DIY job? TI is a trust corporation specializing in wills and probate, and our legal department is made up by lawyers who specialize in probate.

As my mention of the description of Legal Executive by a local firm of lawyers, I can not see why it would take a "proper" Legal Executive up to 60 hours to to carry out probate work.....the fact is that I personally know this "Legal Executive", and she's paid £7.50 an hour....but that's another issue.

I never advocated that my Company should be nominated as an executor to replace close family, oddly enough we encourage it, we only offer Legal Advice to whoever needs it.

As a small note, if one visits the fool website and looks up probate and such, there is a "real" lawyer who says that nominating friends, from his previous experiences, is not a good idea.

As far as the longevity of the Company goes, no one has a crystal ball to say that we are going to be there in 60 years time or not, alas I know of at least two solicitors who having ceased to trade due to death (their own) all their unfinished business remained so because they were not members of any professional association.

I totally agree with Torby about having a will drawn up asap by a professional and about keeping it up to date.

last but not least.....I would like to know how many of my critics actually do have a will and how many have experienced the loss of a spouse, and if they did what frame of mind they were in when it happened and lastly how many did administer an estate without any legal advice? After all, administering an estate is a legal procedure and as such it would be foolish, for the inexperienced, to try to do so without legal aid.

.........Now let's get prepared for the onslought.......:D