The Scottish government has announced plans to regulate non-lawyer Will writers. 

Although certain legal activities are regulated and can only be carried out by qualified lawyers, this is not the case with Will writing which can be undertaken by unqualified individuals. 

More than half of the adult population of the UK has not made a Will, providing a potentially huge market for Will writers.  Will companies' marketing techniques include advertising in the press, setting up stalls in shopping centres and even making unsolicited telephone calls to people.

The Law Society of England and Wales has long been in favour of regulation.  Many cases have been publicised featuring Will writers taking advantage of clients.  In one case, an elderly lady was charged £1,000 for a straightforward Will and then driven to her bank by the will writer so that she could withdraw the cash.  In another case, a firm of Will writers advertised “free Wills” but omitted to mention that the original Will would be stored by the company until the person died and that a storage fee of £25 would be charged each year.

The Law Society has also warned of unqualified Will writers failing to understand clients’ instructions and making expensive mistakes which result in a Will being signed which does not comply with the client’s wishes.  The added difficulty is that mistakes in Wills may lie unnoticed for many years and not be discovered until it is too late e.g. until the person dies or becomes mentally incapable of making a new Will.  Although there may be ways to right the wrongs, such methods may be complicated, time–consuming and expensive.  This may be particularly so if the Will writer has since ceased trading or has disappeared.

There are other ways to draw up a Will.  Packs are available from WH Smith and clients can use any one of a number of Will writing websites or even make a handwritten Will.  Such methods may work sufficiently when matters are straightforward e.g. no Inheritance Tax, no potential family disputes, no doubts over mental capacity and no other complications.  If the situation is more complex for any reason, however, it is sensible to seek proper legal advice.

There may be an argument for saying that, in straightforward cases, no regulation is required but that it is in the wider public interest for certain legal services to be handled only by those with proper training and regulation behind them. The difficulty will be in deciding where this line between ‘straightforward’ and ‘complicated’ should be drawn. 

Scottish Community Safety Minister, Fergus Ewing, said: "We are very concerned that some non-lawyer will writers may be exploiting the lack of regulation to the detriment of the consumer in Scotland.”  It remains to be seen how far the Scottish authorities will go and whether Parliament and the Welsh Assembly will follow suit.

If you have any queries regarding this issue, please contact our Wills department on 01639 645061.