How to check a will writer before you pay

Will writing is not a reserved legal activity in the UK. Anyone may sell you a will, no licence exists, and the word “regulated” on a will-writing website deserves a hard look. That does not make the trade uncheckable. It makes the checks different, and this guide lists them in order.

First, establish which of three things you are dealing with

A solicitor firm, regulated by the SRA for everything it does, checkable on the SRA’s records. A will writer belonging to a voluntary body, the Society of Will Writers or the Institute of Professional Willwriters, both of which publish member searches and require training and professional indemnity insurance. Or a firm on none of those lists, which is lawful, and which means every protection you get is whatever the contract gives you. Ask the firm plainly which it is. The answer, and the speed of it, tells you most of what you need.

Check the claim on the body’s own search

If a firm claims SWW or IPW membership, check the member search on the body’s own site rather than trusting a logo. Logos outlive memberships. If a firm claims to be solicitors, the SRA record is the check, and it also shows the firm is current.

Ask for the insurance in writing

Professional indemnity insurance is the nearest thing an unregulated will writer has to a safety net for you. Ask for the insurer and the cover level in writing. A professional firm answers in one email; hesitation here is a complete answer.

The two questions that find the real cost

Where will the original be stored, at what cost, and what happens to it if the firm closes? And who is the executor? Some firms write themselves in as executor and charge the estate later, sometimes far more than the will cost. Both questions belong in writing before you sign anything.

Company checks still apply

A will is a decades-long product. Check the firm at Companies House: how long it has existed, and that it is active. A two-year-old company offering lifetime storage deserves the storage question twice.

If you write wills

Publish the answers to everything above before customers ask: what you are, your member search link, your insurance, your storage terms, your executor policy. In a trade without a register, the firm that volunteers its own checks is the one that wins the cautious customer, and the cautious customer is the good customer.

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If your business is named in this research and you think we have a fact wrong, email hello@whito.co.uk. We check it against the register, correct it within five working days if we are wrong, and publish your statement alongside if you want us to. Full route: corrections, right of reply and removals.

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