The increase in online Wills, especially low cost ones, is something that is here to stay – whether we like it or not! Often, they are promoted by large legal companies, and regularly are for charities. And there is lots of variation in price – from a bit cheaper than a high street solicitor or Will Writer, to completely FREE of charge.
I absolutely get that they make things easy and are encouraging more people to make a Will because of that. And they are helping to increase legacy promises to charities. But we still have around 60% of UK adults who haven’t made a Will. So how effective are they at encouraging us to act? And how effective are the Wills that your get online?
My mystery shop, and what I found out!
I’ve done some mystery shopping this week, and here is a summary of what I found:
- There is little or no protection against getting it wrong, and you won’t know that until it’s too late.
- There are no checks – for ID (who is actually making that Will?), or capacity (do you have full understanding of what you are doing?) or influence (are you subject to coercion?).
- There is no advice .., in fact there are disclaimers to confirm this!
- You can spend 15 minutes, or less, completing one! Is that really enough time for one of the most important documents you will ever make?
- You can get a Will FREE, and not even have to help out the charity that is paying for the service!
- You can pay as much as you would on the high street, for a FAR inferior service!
- You can do all the work yourself, or have us do it for you … and far more!
Read on for more about my experiences with Online Wills. Then contact us for a far more comprehensive service 😊
Flooded with offers and emails
This week, as I do every week, I got at least half a dozen offers on my Facebook and Instagram feeds – and almost the same in my email inbox. All offering a Will or Power of Attorney service that was “quick”, “cost effective” and “simple”. One of these companies sent me an email every two days for a fortnight. Each one with a “more urgent” message and a better discount offer.
I’m curious to see what service you really get, what advice you are given, how much you are encouraged to buy other products, how much protection you are getting.
So I decided to do some mystery shopping. To find out what you actually get …. read on to find out what I discovered.
Free Online Wills for Charity
I chose a “Get your Will free for a charity … do it in 15 minutes. For this, the service is purely for online Wills. And you do ALL the work.
A simple screen, asking a few Yes/No questions about you, your family and your home. Then to the remaining questions that included:
- My personal details, children, pets
- My assets – I could choose to include things like bank accounts and pensions, but nothing about values or my tax position.
- Who did I want my whole estate to go to (names and either DOB, Address or email), and backups in case they weren’t around. I was told what “my estate” meant (including some brief information about property ownership), but not what to do with the other items such as pensions.
- Was I excluding anyone (I could give a reason why if I wished).
- Did I want to make a gift to charity (I could simply say No).
- Would I like to include a gift for the charity?
- Who do you want as Executors – of course I was encouraged to use a professional (twice). I chose just one family member as Executor.
- There were options to leave gifts or add funeral wishes
All done! In 15 minutes! As promised. And FREE, as promised.
My Will is now off to be checked by experts, which could take a few days. And then I could print it and get it signed to make it legal.
Online Wills and Powers of Attorney Service
I chose an offer from a company who offered me a “complete package” to protect me and my family. I went to their website and saw their offer for a Single Will and Lasting Powers of Attorney. Their price was similar, in fact a little higher, than ours at Morecambe Bay Wills.
So, what was I getting for the same price? And how did the service compare. Well, I was astounded!
I could get a Will and both Powers of Attorney without any advice at all OR I could answer some simple questions which would then show me what was recommended. I chose to answer the questions and was offered, as I expected, a more comprehensive trust Will. This is despite the fact that I clearly stated I had no children and only two stepchildren, to whom I didn’t want to leave any of my estate (they already benefit from their Dad’s trust).
So at that point I was being recommended something I didn’t need for a price of 80% more.
I would have to pay before I could answer any more questions and go onto create my own Will and LPAs, so of course I chose note to do that, as I wasn’t’ going to give away a four figure sum !!! (to be fait there is a 14 day cooling off period, unless I waived it).
Instead, I decided to look at the Terms and Conditions, which I must agree to before paying. And oh, my goodness, this is where I realise what I would have to do to get these documents in place.
For roughly the same price as we charge, here is what I get ….
- Firstly, a disclaimer – we are not responsible for the products you choose. It’s up to you to make sure they meet your needs.
- The advice we give is general, not specific to my individual circumstance. Also, it doesn’t constitute legal advice.
- What you put in is what you get – if you make a mistake, that’s your problem. If your Will or LPA contain wrong information, it’s down to you.
- Once your Will is produced, it is down to you to print it and ensure it is valid by correctly signed and witnessed.
- Once your Powers of Attorney are produced, it is down to you to print, gather all the signatures and then send off for registration.
- There is also an option for your online Wills to undergo a review by an expert. For this you need to print them off and post them for review! But the list of disclaimers is LONG. Basically there is absolutely no liability, and the checking is that you haven’t missed out or duplicated information on names etc. Once again, there is the disclaimer that they can’t check that the documents you have are suitable for your needs.
In short – I do all the work, pay roughly what we charge, and I take all the responsibility.
So, what did I learn?
Firstly – I really wasn’t confident that the Will I created would be legally valid or wouldn’t open to challenge. Why was that? Because I know about Wills and their validity! But that’s mainly because I am in the industry!
My concerns are about the checks made, and the scant information requested. For a Will to be valid …. apart from being signed properly, the person making a Will must:
- Appreciate the nature and consequences of making a Will (I think online Wills can achieve this)
- Understand the extent of their estate (online Wills may do this but only if you really answer all the questions … and you don’t have to!)
- Understand who could make a claim (online Wills can’t do this – they rely on you telling them who is in your family etc)
- not be affected by any mental disorder (online Wills can’t do this – they have no idea of your “mental capacity” at the time you answered the questions or signed your Will). There were no questions about my health or anything that could affect my ability to understand what I was doing. In fact, in the “full price” service there was a disclaimer about this – saying they took no responsibility for checking capacity.
In addition …
- My ID wasn’t checked. I could be anyone, making a Will for someone else – fraudulently.
- Noone would know if I was being told what to do by someone else – being unduly influenced by them.
- There would be no check on whether I ever signed my Will or signed it properly. And if I didn’t, or it wasn’t, it would be too late by the time it came to light!
I also learned …
- For free charity online Wills. I can do this for free, and not even leave a donation to the charity who promotes the offer. So, they pay the Will Writing company and don’t even get anything for it. Charity just lost out!
- I was told my Will would work for me, but I didn’t have a conversation with anyone at all. So how did they know it would work for me if they don’t know my aims and objectives?
- There was no prompt about any risks such as your inheritance going to others accidentally (in which case a trust may be useful).
- I wasn’t guided about any other financial scenarios – such as what to do with pensions, life insurance, gifts made, debts owed. There was little information about Inheritance Tax or how it may affect me or my family.
- For Online Will and LPA service, I was asked to do ALL the work myself. Input, print, get signatures, register LPAs. The service I was paying for was no more comprehensive than the free Will service I had used!
A comparison .. what do you really get?
Here is a summary of what you get with Online Wills versus what you get with the Morecambe Bay Wills service.
* note that there are many providers of Online Wills. I looked 4 or 5 and they are all different. Some tell you that your Will is checked by a solicitor (before or after it is issued!) to make sure there are no issues. Some provide a full Professional Indemnity; others just provide disclaimers. So, there is no “one size fits all” comparison, but the above gives a view of what I found in my “mystery shopping” for Online Wills experience.
Full service or no service?
Which would you choose? Online Wills where you do all the work and the risk is high? Or use our fully comprehensive, fully insured service where we do all the work for you?
Contact us on 01524 571032 for an initial chat about how our service adds extra protection and gives you all the confidence you need. And let us do the work for you !!!!
Don’t tap, talk !!!!in