The Legal Services Board is to launch an investigation into will-writing, probate and estate administration markets after it had been made aware of bad practice.
The board took the action after receiving independent advice from the Legal Services Consumer Panel, who recommended that will-writing services should be regulated after finding evidence of sharp sales practice, poorly made-out wills and also wills being lost. The panel arranged a mystery shopping exercise, conducted by expert assessors, which found that a fifth of wills prepared by unregulated will-writing companies and solicitors were failed.
The panel said that solicitors should be better trained in the practice of will-writing and suggested that the Office of Fair Trading should lead an enforcement campaign which targets those will-writing companies which provide the worst customer service.
The panel suspects that just short of 200,000 wills every year are prepared by unregulated services and, while the Legal Services Board is now asking current regulators and trade bodies on what steps can now be taken to raise standards, legislation, if accepted by the government, could taken two years to come into force.
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2011/jul/14/investigation-launched-into-will-writing
