Trading Standards warn over misselling of property protection trust wills

Trading standards watchdogs have teamed up with the Law Society to warn consumers about the risks of using an unregulated will writer to prepare a Property Protection Trust Will.

The North East Trading Standards Association said teams in the region had received numerous complaints from members of the public over the high pressure selling adopted by firms.

Property Protection Trust Wills or Asset Protection Trusts are designed to help home owners protect the value of their home and safeguard their share of a property in the event of changing circumstances, such as the death of a partner.

It is claimed that transferring ownership of the property concerned into such a trust would mean that a council would not be able to class the house as an asset when carrying out a means test to assess whether it will pay care home fees.

But trading standards teams fear that the products are being mis-sold.

Howard Turton, Regional Enforcement Manager for NETSA, said: “We are concerned that the victims are typically elderly and are subjected to high pressure sales in their own homes. The average person would have very little knowledge of such products and therefore would be at a significant disadvantage to the caller, who they perceive to be an expert. Wild claims could be made with little likelihood for the homeowner to doubt them.”

Turton added that the potential limitations of such products were also not always conveyed to the homeowner.

“Local authorities have a legal right to overturn any gifts into such trusts where they can prove that there has been a ‘deliberate deprivation of assets’,” he said.

“For this reason, customers who take out an Asset Protection Trust or similar could find themselves challenged by the local authority at a later date, especially if care home fees are required soon after the trust arrangement is put in place.”

Turton also said there had been complaints that the companies involved in selling the products were charging considerably higher fees than would be charged by a qualified solicitor. 

NETSA and the Law Society highlighted how the companies making the calls were unregulated “and may not even be qualified or entitled to undertake this work”.

Chancery Lane has been campaigning for years for will writers to be regulated.

In April the Legal Services Board set out proposals under which will-writing and estate administration services would become ‘reserved activities’ and so brought within the scope of legal services regulation.

Law Society President John Wotton said: “Without regulation, will writing providers have the freedom to market and deliver services without meeting any professional standards to the detriment of consumers or, very frequently, their families. The preparation of trust deeds relating to real or personal estate for the purposes of law, in particular, is an offence, unless a person is authorised or exempt under the 2007 Legal Services Act.

“Key elements of preparing a Property Protection Trust fall within the definition of a reserved activity. Consumers need to be aware that reserved activities can only be carried out by a solicitor or other authorised person, or an exempt person, and that unregulated will writers may not be legally entitled to prepare these sorts of trusts.”