Digital Wills and LPA’s
Back in May, in my article on Jane’s Blog, I asked whether necessity was the mother of invention and in this time of pressing need for change whether Wills would ‘go digital’. I must admit I was certainly surprised to see that three months later that they will!
Well perhaps not digital as such (yet?) but a huge development has taken place in that that legislation is due to be enacted next month to amend the meaning of ‘in the presence of’ for the signing of a Wills to incorporate ‘virtually’ in the presence of as well as the traditional physical sense. This means that witnesses can be present over a video link through any platform provided that the quality is sufficient they can see and hear the signing.
I hasten to add that this is truly groundbreaking stuff in the Private Client world and certainly quick work in producing such a significant update to a process and legislation that that has been otherwise unchanged for such a staggeringly long time.
The change has of course not come without its critics and the consensus among professionals is that it is such that using video link remains a last resort. Certainly, as solicitors preparing Wills we would certainly prefer to actually meet our clients face to face as things can be missed or lost via video link particularly relating to safeguarding issues that would otherwise be more apparent when physically meeting with clients.
Having considered the guidance in detail, it is also not as straightforward as you would first envisage; the person making the Will and the two witness have to sign the same original Will document and each signature must be in the presence of the other so the document needs to get to potentially three different households with a video call made for each signature.
However, there is no doubt at all that when the need to prepare a Will is there and the person cannot physically have witnesses present in the current climate then this allowance could prove incredibly valuable. The legislation is being back dated to pre-lockdown to provide reassurance to those who took the risk on virtual witnessing of Wills during this time. This is a temporary measure however in light of the present need for social distancing and is due to end on 31 January 2022. It is more than conceivable that the success of this will be carefully monitored and may well pave the way for further pioneering changes to the traditional measures we operate under.
This huge step is not the only modernisation that has taken place in the last few weeks in the Private Client world. We have seen the government also release a new digital tool in relation to the use of Lasting Powers of Attorney (“LPAs”). Lockdown has been a trigger to turn many of us paperless or ‘paperlite’ and it seems that this is being embraced with respect of using LPAs. An LPA is a legal document in which you are able to appoint the people you want to make decisions on your behalf should you lose the mental capacity to do make these yourself in the future. We would always recommend these are put in place; they are a very useful insurance policy for the future.
As you may expect however LPAs are lengthy legal documents and if they are required to be actively used a full certified copy must be physically provided to each institution – this can be a lot of photocopying and a lot of letters or trips to banks! The new service allows financial institutions to access the official government website to view the LPA without seeing a paper copy of the LPA; this will no doubt speed things up and save a lot of time and paper.
It is good to see progress where things are being carefully adapted and improved by the current necessity to do so. Whist there have been musings for years on these it seems that of all things it has been 2020 will prove to be a catalyst for change.
Please contact our Wills, Trusts and Probate Team with any questions relating to this weeks blog or any private client matter.
