Press Release
Society of Will Writers supports the licensing of will
writers
The Society of Will Writers thanks the Legal Services Consumer Panel for taking the
bold step to carry out their own investigations rather than continuing to rely
on the anecdotal evidence that has been regularly provided by various parties
in the past in an attempt to discredit professional will writers.
Although will writing has been around for over 20 years, it is only in very recent years
that we have seen a rise in the numbers of will writing companies, in
particular, that work outside of any regulatory regime, and as a consequence
have succeeded in bringing the profession into disrepute through their poor
practices.
Every action taken and initiative supported by the Society recognises the importance
of ensuring that the consumers’ interests lie at the heart of all we do. We
believe that now could be the right time to introduce a system of regulation
that will ensure that any person or company that provides wills and other testamentary
documents in exchange for a fee are properly licensed to practice.
The Society supports the introduction of the licensing of professional will writers
in Scotland and looks forward to working with the Scottish Executive in the
future in bringing their plans to fruition.
Furthermore the Society believes that such a system can also work in England and Wales, and need not necessarily be prohibitive on cost resulting in even fewer people
being put off from making a will. We also believe that such a system, if
adopted could be introduced very quickly and cheaply with the profession
bearing the bulk of the cost.
The Society of Will Writers already has in place the infrastructure needed to
support such a scheme including well established training and legal support
systems, a Code of Practice which its members are required to adhere to and
which has been drafted in consultation with the OFT, the CAB, LACORS and Age
Concern (now part of Age UK) and is currently before the OFT for stage one
approval under their CCAS scheme.
Monday 18th July 2011
NOTES
The Society of Will Writers (SWW) is a
non-profit making self regulatory organisation which seeks to Protect the
Public and serve the interests of those men and women who are active
professionals in our field.
All SWW members are covered by
Professional Indemnity Insurance, with the Society main scheme being
underwritten by the UK’s leading insurance company Hiscox. Members are bound by
the SWW’s code of conduct and disciplinary and complaints procedures, copies of
which are available from the society upon request.
All SWW members go through a stringent
vetting procedure and continuing training to ensure that they are suitable
persons to properly write a will.
For More information please contact Brian
McMillan, Director General on 01522 687888
through a stringent
vetting procedure and continuing training to ensure that they are suitable
persons to properly write a will.
For More information please contact Brian
McMillan, Director General on 01522 687888
Excellent news!