Getting a will is easier than it ever was these days. Over the last 10 years, dozens of services have popped up online, allowing you to put together a will in a matter of minutes.
In fact, so keen are some of these firms to emphasise how quick the process is, they put in it their name. A service and website called Ten Minute Will has been around since 2003. And in an act of what can only be bold one-upmanship, another firm launched Nine Minute Will in 2016.
But while we may have no desire to spend any longer than nine minutes contemplating our demise and writing our will, there’s a strong case to be made that this is not something to be done in a hurry.
If you want to ensure your wishes are executed accurately, it’s worth investing in some more time and some legal advice to ensure you end up with a document that is legally binding and leaves no room for ambiguity when you’re gone.
Worryingly, the number of people who are opting for the short, sharp process seems to be rising exponentially. Worse still, most of the new breed of will writers are not run by qualified solicitors and offer no consumer protections if things go wrong.
According to a recent report by Funeral Solutions Expert, the number of people buying online wills more than doubled over the last year – from around 60,000 to 150,000.
The report goes on to show that most people are – as you’d expect – not entirely sure of everything they needed to consider when taking out a will. And even among those who were, the research seemed to indicate an over-confidence, with many not appreciating that being divorced, co-habiting or having children with more than one partner would likely necessitate some additional thought and advice when it came to drafting their will.
Although most of the new breed of online will writers offer slick user experience, Funeral Solutions Expert’s analysis suggests that the question sets are often overly simplistic and do not offer enough prompts to get customers considering whether they need professional advice.
Furthermore, most do not ensure that the will that is looked over and approved by a professional once it is complete.
At the worst end of the scale, a small number of firms write themselves in as executors to the wills they produce, giving themselves the right to take hefty percentage commissions for settling the estate when the time comes.
The cost of will writing does also not necessarily correlate to quality in this market. The cost of an online joint will varies from nothing at all to £260, with some firms bundling customers into annual subscriptions which allow them to make changes. These can work out to be notoriously bad value and leave people spending much more than they need.
A happy medium is certainly achievable here. The benefits of streamlined online will services should be retained. But firms in this sector should be subject to some light touch regulation – which should include the stipulation that all wills are reviewed by a qualified specialist.
Customers also need proper access to redress when things go wrong – ideally the legal Ombudsman. But for most online will writer customers, there’s no recourse other than through the courts.
Most people do have fairly simple affairs that can be served well by a guided online application process. But firms should be banned from ever writing themselves in as executors. And they should be forced to help customers identify when their circumstances may merit a more specialist treatment.
The current lack of regulation may well be churning out many thousands of ineffective wills every year. If you’re thinking of using one of these services – tread with care.
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