Do Will Writers Need a Regulatory Body?
The Institute of Professional Will Writers (IPW) are in discussions with the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) with a view to creating a regulatory body to govern Will writers throughout the UK. These talks are born out of continued concern and complaints from members of the public who’ve received poor advice from some Will writing providers.
It is often the elderly or vulnerable who are taken advantage of by companies or individuals providing Will writing services at ‘too good to be true’ prices. In many cases, the ‘affordable’ Will writing service is a loss leader, upon which other services are sold. This could mean that the final bill may be far higher than the original quote as every dotted ‘i’ and crossed ‘t’ incurs an additional ‘administration’ charge.
Cold calling potential customers and pressuring those who admit to not having yet made their last Will and testament into doing so is not the way Will writing service providers should be operating, and such practices have a detrimental effect on the service as a whole. Having an independent regulatory body will require all who provide a Will writing service to adhere to a well defined set of practising standards.
Currently, no such regulatory body exists in the UK and Will writers are free to choose whether or not to become members of the ‘self-regulatory’ Society of Will Writers or the IPW. These organisations require their members to follow certain guidelines & standards of service, therefore ensuring the general public are safeguarded from unethical and unqualified practises.
However, a ‘one for all’ regulatory body could create more problems than it aims to solve. This is due to the fact that unscrupulous Will writers are a minority and often individuals with little or no professional experience. It is this minority which needs to be regulated and not necessarily the industry as a whole, as the vast majority of professional Will writing companies are perfectly capable of regulating themselves and their staff.
Where there are no rational grounds for regulation, there should be no regulation. Larger corporations have their own training facilities, legal departments, ongoing professional development programs and many other advantages over the ‘one man band’ outfits. Different rules are needed for individuals who provide a Will writing service and Will writing companies which have a proper infrastructure in place.
That is not to say there should be no regulation. As previously discussed, the minority of unscrupulous individuals are in need of some regulation as they, unlike Will writers who are part of a larger organisation, are currently answerable to no-one. Over regulation could destroy the industry, so the creation of a regulatory body for the Will writing industry as a whole needs to be flexible enough to cater for the needs of both individual Will writers and corporate entities.
If these talks are to prove successful then more representatives from the industry as a whole need to be included. Topics such as licensed and approved training courses, continued professional development accreditations, and corporate membership rather than multiple individual memberships all need to be properly investigated. The more representatives we have around the table will create the basis for better regulation where needed, rather than the IPW morphing itself into the regulatory body.