Docklands Solicitor

- Many Banks will offer their ‘most valued’ customers a “Free Will” - never before has the saying been so true that “if it looks too good to be true, it probably is!”


- In our Free Audit service for Existing Wills, we often review Wills provided by Banks. I say ‘provided’ as the Banks do not actually ‘draft’ the Wills themselves, they will take your basic instructions (they are not trained in Estate Planning so are not qualified to ‘advise’ you or do any more than take instructions for basic Wills), and then they send these off to a Solicitor to draft the Will.

- This Solicitor has never met you, never spoken to you, has no idea what your family circumstances are, has no idea of the conversation you have had with your Bank Manager, and hence, most crucially, has no idea whether this Will is actually going to do what you need it to do to protect the ones you love and protect your assets, making sure they go where you want them whilst minimising your inheritance tax liability wherever possible.

- But even the possibility of having a Will that is not really fit for purpose or tax efficient is not the worst issue with Bank provided Wills. The fact is that ‘nothing in life is free’ - and though they might not charge to draft the Will, or charge a substantially reduced fee, the ‘payback’ comes when it is too late for you to do anything about it - after you have died - as what the Banks do, and very often do not make clear, is they write themselves into your Will as your Executor, many appoint themselves as your Sole Executor.

- ‘So what?’ you may well ask - well, as a ‘professional Executor’ in your Will, your Bank not only has an absolute right to act, but also has a right to charge a fee for their services – and these fees can be anything from 4-10% of the value of your estate!

- Isn’t it time to dig out your Will and check who is appointed as Executor? My own parents’ original Wills were provided by their Bank, and though they had specifically requested the Executors be the ‘survivor and our 3 children’, the Will was drafted with the Bank as sole Executor - a fact only picked up many years later, fortunately before it was too late to put it right!

Labels: executor, fees, free, Will