How many personal details should we disclose to will-writing company?

[Daily Express]

Earlier this month my wife and I were visited by a financial adviser who, when he found out what we were worth, asked if we had made wills.

I have made my own will and my wife has a will which is out of date. He said that he could recommend someone who could help us who would also set up a trust, which would sort out the matter of dealing with our finances should either of us have to go into a home at a later stage in our lives.

I am 74 and my wife is 72 next month. Our estate is worth about £500,000.

A few days later, after receiving a call from a well-known company who are in the will-writing business, we received a letter detailing some of the things which they wanted us to have available for their representative.

These included "details, including approximate amounts and account numbers, of financial assets and investments, your tax office and your National Insurance number".

After careful consideration we decided that these details were none of their business and we called the visit off.

Now I know that anyone who will be writing our wills needs to know some of our business, but when we made our wills before I am sure that we were not asked to disclose all the nitty gritty.

Surely the cost of making the wills should be agreed in advance and not based of the size of the estate.


BH

[Bill Ryan]

Just a quick reply right now.

There is no need for the level of detail that was requested.

You were right to be suspicious.

I will come back to this later on today.

[Bill Ryan]

Dear BH

Dealing with how will instructions are normally taken first:

It is necessary to have obvious details such as full names, address and ages/dates of birth (for children) for all those to be named in a will.

To give good advice and offer proper solutions to a given situation it is also proper practice to ask for a breakdown of assets and value of any property owned. In the same vein details of any debts and liabilities such as any mortgage outstanding are relevant too.

The wishes of those making the will are applied to the financial picture and from that different options can be discussed and adopted or rejected.

I can see no good reason for requesting account numbers, National Insurance number and Tax Office details.

Looking at the cost, if you were seeking a pair of mirror wills it should not be in a higher cost bracket for your case. However if you were to incorporate, for example, a Discretionary or Life Interest Trust the cost would be higher due to an increase in complexity.

It is not clear to me whether or not you were given an indication of price before the appointment but it is good practice to at least give you an indication of the price of a pair of mirror wills before an appointment.

This matter does raise quite a few issues concerning the motive of the will writer, and to me at least, the question of what information the Financial Advisor who made the referral passed to you. I would expect the Financial Advisor to have knowledge of the will writer and the pricing as, after all, s/he was in effect making a recommendation to you?

Do bear in mind that Finacial Advisors are now required to ask their clients about their 'will position' and in effect to encourage and/or promote getting wills in place. That is because having a proper will in place is recognised as an important component of proper Financial Planning.

[Jonathan Hill]

I am in full agreement with Bill that it would not be necessary for you to provide the amount of detail requested and that the costs should have been fully disclosed prior to an appointment being made.

Additional complication such as trusts would inevitably cost more, but again this should be made very clear before the appointment.

Simple wills may well be suitable for you as your joint estate are within your joint nil rate bands, planning for care is a different matter which many common solutions do not fully address. If seeking advice in this area you should ensure the firm has specialist current experience not only with advising but actually dealing with the local authority, primary care trusts and court of protection.