Will writing must be regulated says the Legal Services

Radio Interview BBC Today with Chris Kenny

By ensuring your Will is written by a regulated body, and having the Will register with the Certainty National Will Register, will ensure it can be safely located by the beneficiaries and executors.

Certainty are on LinkedIn

Certainty National Will Register now have a LinkedIn Group where we encourage active discussions relating to Wills, Pobate and the importance of registering and searching for Wills.

We invite the profession to join the group and welcome future contributions.

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Recently we were contacted by Mr Hope who was looking for his brother’s Will, who had sadly passed away just before Christmas 2011. While sorting his brother’s personal documents he could find no evidence a Will had been made. He then learnt about intestacy and the work that would need to be conducted if no valid Will is present. Concerned he may be distributing his brother’s estate under the rules of intestacy when he may have made a Will, Mr Hope was provided with our telephone number.

Having discussed the background with one of the Will Search team, a full Will search was conducted. Within a few days, the solicitor* who confirmed a match to Certainty made contact with Mr Hope, made the necessary checks including possession of a Death Certificate before disclosing the existence of the Will of the deceased.

Mr Hope felt the need to send us this letter:

We exist to help the public and the profession alike to help those at a time of need. Mr Hope’s case is one of many we deal with every day. Receiving letters like the one Mr Hope made the time to write, further solidifies the reason Certainty will continue to be used to search for Wills.

Highlights

• As part of the full search, 75 firms were contacted quickly and simply to assist with tracing this Will ‘helping to relieve the stress and burden placed on persons‘**.
• The deceased’s last wishes are going to be carried out in accordance with his Last Will and Testament.
• The solicitor firm holding the Will safely and securely for when the time was needed for their client, received the probate work to distribute the estate. This would not have happened if Mr Hope did not search for the Will with Certainty and proceeded as an intestacy without making checks.
• ‘Even if a will is not located, at least every effort has been made to locate one’.

* The firm of solicitors is based almost thirteen miles away from where the deceased lived.

** Extracts taken directly from Mr Hope’s letter.

Probate is a complex subject which, with the exception of professionals specialising in this area, is a subject that may only be addressed at a time of need under duress. The explosion of the internet and the digital age helps those searching to deepen their understanding of an unfamiliar topic, assisting the searcher to make informed decisions. The logical first step could therefore be to run a Google search on the topic.

Certainty is on the front line when it comes to assisting those beneficiaries who are bereaved and unable to find a missing or later Will, thus ensuring the necessary and reasonable steps are taken to fulfill the deceased’s last wishes, as outlined in their last Will and Testament.

The full report from Google can be found on the BBC News website here.

In 1977 two very important events took place, the Queen celebrated her Silver Jubilee and David’s grandfather wrote his Will. 16 years ago David’s grandfather died intestate. However David has never given up his quest to find his grandfather’s Will. David comments, “Finding the Will was never about the money. This was all about being able to fill a gap in my knowledge about my Grandad and about who I was and where I came from. With it we could draw a line in the sand. It also helped my brother complete the family tree he’d been working on.”

Faced with a problem his memory couldn’t help him resolve and keen to bring closure to an emotionally trying experience, David contacted certainty.co.uk. He was sceptical about the chances of finding the Will because his grandfather had died 16 years ago. But this scepticism swiftly turned into optimism and hope.

The Certainty search team first checked the Certainty national Will register. This initial search quickly found that David’s grandfather’s Will was not registered. Certainty then performed a ‘Will Search Cover’ which uses cutting-edge technology to connect solicitors around the country and issues a ‘missing wills notification’. Within a very short time, Certainty unearthed the missing Will. David continues, “I thought this was so exciting; really magical. Lo and behold this Will had been in the solicitor’s office for 34 years. Then, suddenly there it was – a piece of my history”.

“This sort of Will search service can be life-changing. It takes something that’s a dry intellectual pursuit and turns it into a human, emotional experience.” Nigel McGinnity, co-founder of Certainty, added: “Sadly, David’s story is all too common. There are many cases of Wills that haven’t been registered and can’t be found. We know this is a big problem
and that’s why Certainty exists.”

Members can take advantage of TOUCH

Hertfordshire law firm, David Barney & Co Solicitors became members of Certainty in November 2010, recognising the significant benefits and opportunities available to their business and clients. In a recent interview, David Barney & Co reported that they had got off to a ‘flying start’ with Certainty.

Their first step has been to use the Certainty ‘TOUCH Will Management’ system to re-ignite relationships with existing Will cleints by offering free Will registration, helping the client to protect their family and assets while simultaneously protecting the future probate work and income streams. The simple, quick process of Will registration eradicates the problem affecting law firms in that they hold Wills without knowing that the testator has died.

Tracy Hatswell, Solicitor at David Barney & Co comments: ‘We started to write out to all of our existing Will clients using the free Will registration off from Certainty. The response was so overwhelming from clients we had to scale back the rate of letters sent in order to accommodate the inbound enquiries. So far, we have been delighted with the response rate with over 80% of those contacted having now registered their Will with our firm!

Indeed fee income generated from this process in the first three months, from clients wishing to update or review their Will, has more than covered our membership of Certainty. In fact, we have never known such a busy start to the year or been in a position where we can really predict our workload for the coming six months. In a difficult economic market the future of our private client department is really looking good thanks to our Certainty membership. A great deal of revenue remains locked up in our Willbank, using Certainty unlocks it!’

Law firms can protect against potential risk, the loss of clients, new entrant competitiors and the loss of probate income using Certainty’s simple, effective, and powerful system to strengthen client loyalty and maintain contact. Call Certainty on 0845 408 04 04 for further information.

Certainty’s Will search services are referenced in the Probate Practitioners Handbook 6th Edition (section 16.22 Missing Wills) which offers and authoritative guide to good practice.

Extract from the Law Society’s ‘Probate Practitioners Handbook’ 6th Edition 2011.

16.22 MISSING WILLS (Page 273)

It can be difficult to discover whether there is a Will and, if so, where it is located.

PRs run the risk of distributing the estate on the basis of an intestacy when there is, in fact, a Will.

It is possible to register the location of a Will with the Certainty National Will Register (www.certainty.co.uk). A registered Will can then be located by a search of the register. Where a Will has not been registered, it is possible to use a different form of Certainty search. This issues a missing Will notification to solicitors in the areas where the testator was most likely to have made his or her Will, i.e. where he or she worked or lived.

A further reference;

18.4 INTESTATE AND PARTIALLY INTESTATE ESTATE CHECKLIST (Page 319)

18.4.2 Has a search for a Will been made? (If it is thought a Will was made, the ‘Wills and Whereabouts’ page in the Gazette, Certainty, local solicitors, the deposit facility at the Principal Registry (see appendix F for address) and enquiry of the deceased’s bank, friends and relatives may all be of assistance.)

For Solicitors – To purchase the latest edition of the Probate Practitioners handbook, click here.

Protect yourself by using a solicitor practising in Wills and Probate, who as they are regulated there is the help available if things go wrong.

BBC Report 0n the Topic

Channel 4 Report on the Topic

The Certainty National Will Register work closely with Remember a Charity to register all Wills free of charge that supports the work Remember a Charity do. More information can be found here.

from 2006 to 2007 and President from 2007 to 2008.

Q. What was your initial reaction to the Certainty National Will Register? When I first heard about Certainty, I felt I would wait before committing to see if it gained sufficient penetration in the marketplace. A national database will only work if sufficient customers register wills with it.
Q. Did you fully recognise the longstanding problems which Certainty was set up to address – lost copy Wills, difficulty in searching for Wills and inadequate client contact? For many years, clients have been advised to keep their copy will in a prominent place to ensure relatives could locate it after their death. This was the best you could do to make sure that the will you had written for the client had effect. All solicitors are aware of wills in their safe which have either been overlooked or superseded.
Q. What element of Certainty resonated with you most when your interest increased? Not only had Certainty gained good market penetration amongst lawyers but they had developed the product to be much more than just provide certainty that a client’s will would be located.
Q. What objections, if any, did you face internally when making your decision? None when the concept of Certainty had been explained and that the costs could be defrayed by way of higher charges for an extra service rendered to the client.
Q. Did your other partners fully understand the issues first time round? Yes.
Q. Did you appreciate the commercial value for your firm as well as the personal value for your clients? Excellent client service is what my firm has always aimed to deliver. Certainty adds to the quality of the service we provide and added assurance for the client that their Will will be effective.
Q. Did you recognise that Certainty could unlock the value and business within your Willbank? We had already registered our wills on our database but the ability to register all wills made to date by the practice with Certainty gave us the opportunity to write to the client with a free added on service to what we had already done for them.
Q. Did you recognise that Certainty represents a way of safeguarding your probate work income? Certainty provides enhanced ways we can keep in touch with clients and this is good for business and keeping our name at the forefront of clients’ minds.
Q. Did your staff fully understand the value of Certainty for your firm and your clients or did you need to educate them? Our probate team were enthusiastic about the concept from the beginning.
Q. Did the training provided by Certainty help to enthuse your staff (if training has been completed)? Training is always necessary to make the most out of any IT application. We could do with further training about the marketing potential of the marketing module of the Certainty package.
Q. Have you incorporated Will registration into your Will service for all new clients? We have increased our charges and for this increased fee we automatically offer registration of the will with Certainty. Few clients refuse the added value of the registration.
Q. Are you offering Will registration to archived clients in a methodical manageable manner? We have already been through our database and written to all existing clients offering a free registration.
Q. Do your clients quickly accept Will registration, and the associated benefits, when recommended by you? Yes.
Q. What do feel is the most significant benefit to QualitySolicitors Jackson & Canter through Certainty membership? Showing clients that we take quality of service seriously by going the extra mile for clients.
Q. Do you value the intrinsic risk management provided by Certainty services? We will get to the stage when firms who are not members will be regarded as taking an unacceptable risk by failing to ensure that a will can be located.
Q. Any other comments please.We are pleased to have joined and appreciate the development Certainty has made to the package that they offer.