I recently heard a retired detective describe
fraud as ‘theft with a smile’ which is chilling.
I was prompted to write this article after
watching Martin Lewis on television this
morning. He was raising awareness about
scammers using Facebook to encourage
financial investments but using his name
and image to promote these schemes.
Martin Lewis has become synonymous with
saving people money and helping people to
be more conscious about their investments
and bills. With these adverts appearing on
the well-known social media channel, Martin
has decided to take action. He has used all
the appropriate channels including notifying
the Advertising Standards Authority, Action
Fraud and Facebook themselves. Now he is
suing the platform.
Fraudsters are now more clever than ever
and are going to even greater lengths to part
you from your money. As the largest self-
regulatory body governing the profession
of Will Writing, the Society of Will Writers
(SWW) provide a regulatory framework
for over 1700 members. These members
are expected to adhere to a defined set of
standards and provide proof of professional
indemnity insurance (PII) which meets
SWW requirements. The process of gaining
membership to the SWW isn’t too onerous
but we do expect certain proficiency
standards to be able to substantiate our
claims that we protect the consumer.
Will writing is that the person or company
taking your Will writing instructions
finds out an awful lot about you and your
finances, potentially meaning they have
the ability to do an awful l ot of damage.
It is for this reason that you should check
that the person has an up to date I.D. card
or certificate of compliance from the SWW.
Take their membership number from them
and ring us to allow us to check that they
are a member. Alternatively, look at our
website on our find a member function. The
vast majority of our members opt to appear
on our website and this validates their
membership status.
If you ever have any doubts about a Will
Writer or a claim that they are making then
err on the side of caution. It’s better to
satisfy yourself that your affairs are being
put in order properly than to be worrying
that they aren’t.
The same information applies if you were
to seek the advice of a solicitor. Seek
confirmation from the Solicitors Regulatory
Authority.
If the company or person has no professional
accreditation then I would begin to ask
questions. The cost of membership and
additional protection this affords is more
than covered in the confidence that it
provides to clients.
Look out for this logo:
Why does this matter? Your money matters
to you and our profession is essentially
unregulated meaning anyone can claim
themselves to be a Will Writer. You really
ought to do your due diligence on someone
offering estate planning services before
providing them with personal information
and of course any money. The thing with
The Society of Will Writers
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