Regulation of Will Writers Will Increase In The United Kingdom

The Legal Services Board (Board) has discovered that 20% of the wills drafted in the United Kingdom contained common mistakes. The Board also noted that systematic problems existed that were caused by carelessness and poor communication. Because of the low quality of some of these wills, the Board has made two proposals that should increase the quality of wills in the United Kingdom.

• First, the Board would like to include will writing and estate administration as a “reserved activity”. This is to ensure that consumers have access to legal redress. The law only provides legal redress to activities that are considered “reserved.”
• Second, the Board would like to make existing regulations more effective. More specifically, the Board wants to increase the amount of monitoring it does on regulated business. 

The Board will make its final decision regarding these changes in January 2013 after it reviews recommendations from different members of the industry. 

See Nicola Brittain, ‘Sloppy’ Will Writers To Face Legal Services Regulation, IFAonline.co.uk, Apr. 24, 2012.

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (Professional Legal Marketing (PLM, Inc.)) for bringing this article to my attention.