Are financial planners best-placed to deliver will-writing services?

WILLS

Carmen Reichman
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As a solicitors' body renews its call for will writing to be regulated, advisers query whether the task would be best left to financial planners...

As competition heats up among will writers, the legal industry announced it would implement a scheme to protect consumers from the clutches of “cowboy” will writers, following the government’s refusal to regulate the practice. But do lawyers deserve the trust given to them by the vast majority of people looking to plan their estate, or would customers be better served by professional financial planners? The Law Society, which lobbied heavily that all will writers should be trained to the same level and subject to high regulatory requirements, said the public was “let down” by the Lord...

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