The third UKLTA online forum, which was supported by Today’s Wills and Probate took place last week, where our expert panel shared their top tips for Wills and LPA’s during Lockdown, considering how practices have adapted during lockdown and how technology can help.
Chaired by Heather Anson (Anson Evaluate), our panellists Lorraine Robinson (Farewill and Incoming co-chair of Law Society Wills & Equity Committee), Gareth Wisdom (Hugh James), Seb Shakh (Love Legal) and Jonathan Maskew (Simpson Millar) gave clear perspectives on how they are delivering wills and LPA’s today, where they see the future of wills and how technology can help improve delivery of these services.
Some of the key insights included:
- Speed of response from the will provider to get to the point where the customer can start making their will has become more important recently, and firms have seen a greater sense of urgency from people completing wills to get them finalised.
- There has been an increase in people using Advanced Decisions and General Powers of Attorney, as well as or instead of an LPA during the pandemic as an interim measure whilst waiting for the longer period of time for the LPA to be registered.
- Will providers have seen an increase in people wishing to leave part of their estates to charities.
- With over 60% of the population currently dying intestate, there is a huge opportunity for firms to increase the volume of wills they provide through greater use of technology and also potentially to have people creating wills at an earlier age.
- There is a perception that wills are difficult, costly and expensive and people get put off making them. The range of service offerings combined with greater use of technology within the will writing process will mean more people will have the security of having a will in place in future.
- Millennials are reaching an age where they now have estates – typically they want to buy online and buy quickly so firms need to adapt to these newer buying habits in order to service their needs, as well as still providing more traditional approaches too.
- An online service can serve as an enabler for individuals in certain circumstances who wish to write a will, but wish to do so without undue influence or coercion from others.
The recording of the event is available online here for the next seven days – so catch it while you can. Our next panel “Information Security Review” takes place on Thursday at 5pm and you can book your place here.
This article was submitted to be published by UKLTA as part of their advertising agreement with Today’s Wills and Probate. The views expressed in this article are those of the submitter and not those of Today’s Wills and Probate.
