In 2013 the Secretary of State for Justice, Chris Grayling, decided against regulating Will Writing activities, stating that he believes voluntary codes and consumer education could resolve the issues referred to in the Legal service Boards report.
After his announcement Mind At Rest Wills felt it important to follow this guidance and embrace self regulation in order to stand out from those that don't and ensure we provide a high quality professional Will Writing service to our clients.
After reviewing the self regulation providers and options available to us, we decided to get in touch with The Estate Planners Network (EPN).
EPN are a support & development network for Estate Planners & Will Writers, offering a self-regulatory regime for its accredited members.
After reviewing the EPN Website we could see that they provided the key areas of self regulation that we were looking for.
In order to become an accredited member we were required to meet EPN'S stringent entry requirements and agree to abide by their our ongoing requirements, which included abiding by the EPN Professional Charter.
As part of the application process we initially got in touch with Michael Brown who is head of Network Services at EPN, Michael explained the application process to us clearly and kept in touch with us throughout the entire application process.
Once we submitted our application we were considered student members of EPN whilst we were waiting for the various checks to be made and for the board of directors to meet to decide whether to grant us membership.
As student members we were provided with any technical support we requested, in addition to this we received advice and recommendation on getting the right professional indemnity cover in place through one of EPN's many recommended partners.
The overall process took around 3 weeks and all went very smoothly.
We are now pleased to be a fully accredited member of The Estate Planners Network, which ensures that members of the public can use our Estate Planning Services with confidence.
Related Links
Benefits of a Professional Will Writer
Why Use an EPN Member?
Lord Chancellors Will Writing Regulation Decision Notice
