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Whilst yesterday’s blog may have come across as me being anti solicitors I can assure you that I’m not.

I just don’t want people to thoughtlessly appoint one just because they are a solicitor, when there are other options available to them. I am however 100% opposed to anyone not researching the market,  I understand that everyone has a different budget, but there really does come a point where you get what you pay for – spending a little more money can come with a great deal more benefits, including your practitioner having the correct insurance in place.

Your Will is too much of an important document to trust someone who can’t be bothered to train and qualify in this particular field. Ask yourself this, if they are good at what they do and confident that they are writing Wills for their clients in the way that they should be then what possible reason could they have for choosing (and it is an active choice) not to be a member of a professional body? Why aren’t they confident enough in their services to be held accountable by the Chartered Trading Standards Institute like Members of The Institute of Professional Willwriters are, or regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority like law firms are? What are they hiding?

Members of the Institute of Professional Will Writers and Solicitors must also be DBS checked, there is no such requirement for non specialist Will writers yet people are unwittingly letting goodness knows who into their homes and giving full insight to their often valuable personal assets!

In the event that something goes go wrong both solicitors and members of The Institute of Professional Willwriters have professional indemnity insurance and it is a condition of membership of the Institute of Professional Willwriters that members must have at least £2million public liability insurance, again this is not required by non specialist Will writers.

In summary, before blindly appointing a company with a name to rival Trotters Independent Traders (and frankly if you do use a non specialist Will writer after reading this then on your head be it) and you are fortunate enough to have a Member of The Institute of Professional Willwriters or a solicitor who specialises in Wills locally to you, then please consider using them instead, they are specialists in the Will writing industry, qualified by examination and undergo CPD in their field and are totally transparent with their fee structure. What more could you want from the person who is writing arguably the most important document that you will ever sign?