Society Of Will Writers

[dancecaller]

Can you tell me if the members of this have any reasonable qualifications to give advice.
A shop I drive past has its window full of adverts offering Wills, Inheritance tax, Enduring powers of Atourney.
I know that not all solicitors know the tax implications of a will, and an accountant might not have legal qualifications.

[Barmaid]

It's very hard to give a general answer to this type of question. My advice normally would be to see a solicitor who has a STEP qualification (Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners), they will generally have experience of will drafting and tax planning.

The personal problem I have with will writers is that there is no need for them to be qualified or indeed have any professional indemnity insurance - anyone can set themselves up, although I do not know the entry qualifications for the Society of Will Writers - the fact is there is no statutory regulation unlike with solicitors.

[dancecaller]

Thanks. I'll do that then. Or put it off for n more years

[Buenchico]

(2-part post):

The Society of Will Writers does seem to make some genuine attempts to ensure that their members are properly trained and meet certain standards. (Certainly more so than bodies such as the grand-sounding Guild of Master Craftsmen which seems to exist solely to provide their members with an impressive logo to use in their advertising). SWW has 'semi-regulatory' powers. (i.e. it can throw out members who fail to meet the required standards but this won't stop those people from continuing to trade outside of the Society).

The problem is that, while the Society has different grades of membership depending upon the qualifications obtained by the member, there is nothing to stop a member from trading in areas that he/she has not yet achieved any qualifications in.

You are correct to say that not all solicitors know the tax implications of a will. I'd go further and say that many of them haven't got a clue about writing wills. I used to be the managing director of a will-writing company and I sometimes got asked to revise wills that had been prepared by solicitors. The levels of competence displayed by the so-called experts frequently appalled me.

All of my firm's work was brought in through qualified financial advisers. So they dealt with considerations of such matters as IHT. My advice to someone preparing a will (where the estate will be large enough to require some advance planning in respect of IHT) would be a three-step approach, as follows:

[Buenchico]

1. Find an Independent Financial Adviser who specialises in estate planning and who only works on a fee-paying basis (rather than through commission). You'll obviously have to pay for his services but it will be a sound investment.

2. Get hold of the book, published by the Consumers Association, about writing your own will. Study it thoroughly and draft your will. In particular, check that you've answered all of the possible "What if . . ?" type of questions. Here's an example: Let's say that you leave everything to your two sons, Alf and Bert. What if Alf dies just before you? Does his share go to his wife? Or does it go to his children? Or does it to Bert?

3. Now, armed with the advice from the IFA and your carefully thought out will, seek out the services of a STEP-qualified solicitor to tie up all of the loose ends.

Chris

[dancecaller]

Thanks, now how do I find (and know I've found) an IFA who's properly qualified in Estate planning, passing on of Agricultural land etc.

My situation is I've got enough to worry about IH, but the amounts I'd feel happy about giving away now, though useful for house buying, are not enough to get taper relief, so we'll just have to live 7 years (we retired 3 years ago).

[Barmaid]

You do need specialist advice - particularly since it sounds as if you have APR and BPR issues here (it sounds like a similar situation to my parents). After they had seen an IFA who basically tried to sell them loads of expensive insurance policies and didn't know what a gift with reservation was, I sent them to a STEP qualified solicitor in a large firm with experience in tax planning in these situations. There are solicitors who specialise just in estates and are experts in tax. Seemed to come up with a pretty good scheme all round. If you go to www.step.org you can do a search for people in your locality who can help. The only reservation I have with using an IFA and then a STEP member is what if their advice differs? Or what if they get it wrong? Who do your beneficiaries sue? My personal preferred course which sounds like what could be a complicated situation would be one adviser who can deal with the legal implications of trusts and estates as well as stuff such as IHT, CGT, pre owned assets tax, plus potential reliefs on agricultural property.

[Buenchico]

You can find a suitable IFA here:
For Q3, select 'Taxation Planning'
For Q4, select 'Fees'. (That's important if you don't want to end up with someone trying to sell you something)
For Q6, select 'Tax Qualifications (G10)'

Chris

[Buenchico]

Oops!

That post might have made more sense if I'd remembered to include the link!
http://www.unbiased.co.uk/

Chris