Wills and Probate services: Rip off Britain

Today’s BBC programme “Rip Off Britain” (9th December 2011) highlighted problems with using a certain probate company called ITC which charged very high fees to act as executor and to deal with probate. After some complaints they reduced their fees for the particular person featured on the show to a more acceptable level.

This highlights some important issues about using certain will writing companies who act as professional executors or who offer such services.

Always beware of anyone putting themselves forward as professional executors in any forceful way. It may be a service someone might regret you taking up.

Firstly, find out exactly how much the professional executor much they are going to charge and secondly never appoint a professional executor who will not give an undertaking to vacate their executor ship if asked by beneficiaries. This is a safeguard against fees being ramped up at a later date.

There are the unscrupulous companies and the expensive ones out there but by asking the right questions they can be avoided.

On a similar subject it is not a good idea to pay for probate in advance. You never know if you will need them when the time comes and even if the company offering the service will be around to deliver.

So with probate services it is a case of buyer beware and some.

I looked at this for the first time a few days ago and I thought it was a very good presentation from Sue Medder. I watched all of the series and not surprisingly I found it very interesting.

She comments on the reasons why so many people do not make a Will, which she characterises as practical reasons more than legal reasons.

She also mentions some of the good reasons to write your Will and what might happen if you don’t and you die intestate. This can cause serious problems for your surviving family members which she illustrates in an example. In the straightforward situation she describes, dying intestate can cause the sale of the matrimonial home.

In my view a good account all around and I strongly recommend you look at this if you are thinking about making your Will.

When you have done that you can come back and see about me helping you or go and see Sue .

You Can’t Take it With You – Sue Medder on Wills

I am going to moan about DIY Wills again.

Why should I do this? Well it is simply that a whole new raft of people are looking for a cheap ticket to do their Will and they need to know about the pitfalls.

Need to know what? Well that if you get it wrong you could seriously jeopardise your family if you died. It could force the sale of the house to pay Inheritance tax if your Will is invalid and your estate is distributed under the rules of intestacy.

That saving £100-£250 for this by going DIY will seem like a pittance if the will is invalid. You won’t get to find out but other will.

Now the biggie. How do you know it is valid? I have seen DIY wills done so badly that they were invalid 5 times over. How can people get it so wrong if the instructions are there?

Good question but they do just like people mess up Ikea furniture. Can’t follow the instructions.

At the very least have it checked by a lawyer if you can find one who will do it for a reasonable fee. Get it wrong and earn the ultimate epitaph of cheapskate!

I was at a meeting yesterday where one of the people made a statement that caught my attention.

He said that people who make Wills live longer. I asked for some more details to back up this assertion.

Ah, he said, it was not that making a Will makes you live longer as such but the type of people who do make Wills actually live longer. I accept that there are plently of decent sociological type studies that do make a strong correlation between wealth/class etc and what they do and don’t do.

I will not be making this a selling feature for making a Will as it might be misunderstood.

Has your Financial Advisor told you to make your Will?

If you use an Independent Financial Advisor (IFA) you will naturally have to let them know a lot about your financial circumstances, in most situations. They must ahve this information to help build a strong picture about your circumstances to enable them to give give you the best advice.


At the end of the fact find about your circumstances an IFA is required under FSa guidelines to ask if you have a Will. If you have one they should ask you when was it last reviewed and if it wasn’t for a few years they should recommend you have it done ASAP.

IF you don’t have a Will they should recommend you get one ASAP. This is really important as having a Will is a fundamental part of financial planning. As the infamous meerkat might say “Simples”!

What happens next is a moveable feast. If you are pointed in the direction of a Will Writer or solicitor did the IFA know who you were actually going to get you involved with?

It surprises me that in some cases your IFA will not know who is coming to see you. w

What can happen is that your details are sent to a company and someone ‘local’ contacts you to make an appointment about making your Will. Pot luck sometimes.

Have a look at this forum post on Cash Questions to see what can happen How many personal details should we disclose to a Will-Writing company?

And if you are an IFA why would you do this?

DIY Wills meets Freemium –  a new offering?

If you have any interest in Wills you probably understand the idea of a DIY Will. You may be aware of the concept of Freemium or you may have used a Freemium system without realising. So what about the two together?

Well how about a free Will template (or free Will form as is often searched for on the web) for someone to download and use. If they want to have a lawyer check it to see it has been done properly that will be at a charge. That is the ‘upgrade’, as it were, from the free product.

If you like the sound of that come back here in a week or so and you will find details of such an offer from a qualified practising lawyer.

It may not be the best answer for lots of people but as DIY wills are popular and this is almost all to do with cost it could be a very useful way or letting someone do a will and ensure that the DIY effort was not done badly. So DIY Wills based on a free Will template and the chance to get it checked for a modest fee. DIY Will Freemium sounds interesting.

DIY Wills

I get to think about Do It Yourself Wills (or DIY Wills) quite a lot.

Knocking the use of DIY wills is easy and can be justified because, for certain, it is a risky way to ensure your inheritance is goes where you want it to.

Why is that?

Firstly, many family/property situations are not understood by an average person. For example, the issues surrounding joint-ownership of property and about second marriage inheritance problems when there are children from the first marriage.

Secondly, how does anyone know it has been written and signed correctly? Normally no lawyer gets to check that it has been attested (signed in accordance with the legal rules) properly.

So to get the right DIY Will and ensure it is valid you need to be clear about your own circumstances and what the particular Do It Yourself Will kit can offer.
You need to have the DIY Will checked by a qualified lawyer or a properly qualified Will Writer to see that it is OK.

Be careful who you ask to do the check. Many proper and professional and Will Writing companies produce good Wills for clients use Instruction Takers. These people do not have the facility to check them. They are agents or franchisee’s who are qualified to take instructions only and not to write Wills.

So maybe you could check local lawyers to see if they do it and how much they might charge for it.

It might be the only way you can get peace of mind.

So the mantra should be if you must make a Will using a DIY Will kit do ensure it is checked before you put it away.

Wills on video?

Wills amusing?

I look through YouTube from time to time to see if I can find anything interesting. This is the first time I have found a video about last Wills amusing. It is a little tongue in cheek and, no, generally speaking, video Wills are not valid so you shouldn’t get ideas. However if you want to leave a video message for those left behind there is plenty of opportunity to do that.

Just remember to get your real last Will and testament sorted out properly.

I saw someone a couple of weeks ago who wanted some advice about making sure her Will would cover all her assets. She had the idea that she had to list everything in the Will.

Having spent a while discussing why this was not necessary as dealing with her residuary estate would deal with all these areas we got to talking about her current Will.

She passed me her Will which was a regular DIY Will of the type that probably cost about £10.

It contained so many errors I was very surprised.

She had crossed out her previous address and put in a new one.

She had changed some of the gifts by crossing out items and adding new ones.

She contradicted her gifts by giving everything to a group of people and giving specific gifts to others.

She had recopied half of the will again on the same sheet and finally she told me that the witnesses had come to witness her signature in different days.

She was a very bright person but just could not folow the instructions it seems.

I am as sure as can be that this Will would not be accepted by the Probate Registry.

If there ever was an advert for the benefits of a Will review!

Here is a video from Bloombergs which gives a good overview of why it is important to have a Will. It is for the USA but much of the information is relevant o the UK and common law jurisdictions such as Canada as well.

Find out more about making a will and more at Lawscape