Wills and Probate | Certainty UK Will Register Blog

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Certainty regularly meet senior legal professionals to discuss the ongoing developments of the register . Kevin Martin, Chairman of Certainty and Andrew East, Chairman STEP UK Probate & Estates Committee recently expressed the following views…

11. Q. If you could put in one phase why a member of the public should write a will what would those words be?

A: (Kevin) Its about the benefit of certainty and the avoidance of doubt and minimising potential conflict.

(Andrew) Yes that puts it very well, basically you can be sure your estate (more…)

Certainty regularly meet senior legal professionals to discuss the ongoing developments of the register . Kevin Martin, Chairman of Certainty and Andrew East, Chairman STEP UK Probate & Estates Committee recently expressed the following views…

10. Q. Are there any additional qualifications involved?

A:  (Andrew) Yes there is an entrance exam. We have a diploma exam for people who do not have any other previous professional qualification. If you do have a previous professional qualification (more…)

Certainty regularly meet senior legal professionals to discuss the ongoing developments of the register . Kevin Martin, Chairman of Certainty and Andrew East, Chairman STEP UK Probate & Estates Committee recently expressed the following views…

9. Q. For the public point of view if we could have an overview of STEP so that they understand STEP.

A:  (Andrew) Well I would say, going back to its origins the idea behind STEP was to provide a forum for lawyers, accountants and bank trust staff who all do basically similar types of work where they could get together and discuss. (more…)

Certainty regularly meet senior legal professionals to discuss the ongoing developments of the register . Kevin Martin, Chairman of Certainty and Andrew East, Chairman STEP UK Probate & Estates Committee recently expressed the following views…

8. Q. Do you think that we should wait for the government to make a register?

A: (Kevin) I think you are looking at a model which would be an ideal but in reality it is not going to happen.  What has happened in other European countries, and we are going back decades, is that the government has persuaded the bar associations (more…)

Certainty regularly meet senior legal professionals to discuss the ongoing developments of the register . Kevin Martin, Chairman of Certainty and Andrew East, Chairman STEP UK Probate & Estates Committee recently expressed the following views…

7.  Q. When we met, not trying to go too over the top, you mentioned it was an opportunity for STEP members in your view as Chair. What would you say to encourage STEP members, every practice has a different structure in the way the want to attract new business and respond to the national wills register, what would you say?

(Andrew) I think I would say to STEP members that you should certainly look at this because whatever level of business you are at I think searching on the internet (more…)

Certainty regularly meet senior legal professionals to discuss the ongoing developments of the register . Kevin Martin, Chairman of Certainty and Andrew East, Chairman STEP UK Probate & Estates Committee recently expressed the following views…

6. Q. Certainty has a big online presence for its member solicitors – is this relevant to the profession?

A: (Kevin) I think putting it in perspective they do of course make an impression. I mean your own research has shown that if you go onto the internet depending on what you put into Google (more…)

Certainty regularly meet senior legal professionals to discuss the ongoing developments of the register . Kevin Martin, Chairman of Certainty and Andrew East, Chairman STEP UK Probate & Estates Committee recently expressed the following views…

5. Q. Do you think that un qualified will writers erode future private client relationships through the possibility of a new client coming to a solicitor to write a will and eventually use other services as opposed to an un qualified will writer going round to some ones house for £35 and loosing the future opportunity of a client relationship with a solicitor.

A: (Andrew) Well yes I think that obviously must be a danger. When we get someone through the door to write a will you are also looking to see if there are other areas, other services that we can help (more…)

Certainty regularly meet senior legal professionals to discuss the ongoing developments of the register . Kevin Martin, Chairman of Certainty and Andrew East, Chairman STEP UK Probate & Estates Committee recently expressed the following views…

4. Q. Do you feel that Certainty has done the right thing by only including the legal profession and STEP members within a register in a conscious move to combat unqualified will writers and DIY will writing kits.  In the long-term do you think Certainty was socially responsible in doing that?

A: (Kevin) There is no question that you have been and that you were quite right to target solicitors and STEP members, in other words people who are properly qualified to make wills, and not just qualified in the law relating to the making of wills, but qualified in the law on a wider spectrum.  It is vitally important that people use people who really know what they are doing (more…)

Certainty regularly meet senior legal professionals to discuss the ongoing developments of the register . Kevin Martin, Chairman of Certainty and Andrew East, Chairman STEP UK Probate & Estates Committee recently expressed the following views…

3. Q. Do you think being able to offer a registration gives a fresh impetus or new focus - does it remove the element of ‘this is a distress purchase’ to the idea that I should register my will, and so completes the cycle and removes that whole mentality of ‘I don’t want to address that issue in my life, because it means the end’.

A:  (Kevin) I think we’ve found in countries where there is a will register that it does help the process, that there are fewer instances of people not being able to trace wills which they believe (more…)

Certainty regularly meet senior legal professionals to discuss the ongoing developments of the register . Kevin Martin, Chairman of Certainty and Andrew East, Chairman STEP UK Probate & Estates Committee recently expressed the following views…

2. Q. Do you think that the legal profession publicise the selling of a will correctly. I’ll give you an example, we have been writing a synopsis for founder members on the website. From a marketing point of view I notice we write very little substance behind it - just you should make a will. There is very little detail about the pain of not making a will.  Do you think there is a greater objective here for solicitors to highlight why you should make a will?

A:  (Kevin) I’m sure there is scope for improvement. Solicitors are much more tuned in to the idea of marketing now than they were say 10yrs ago – some of them do it extremely well, some of them don’t do it at all, and there are lots in between. (more…)