A former colliery manager is returning to his mining roots to
deliver an important warning to his old contemporaries.
Now director of Staffordshire Wills, David Nixon will be
appearing at Temple Street Methodist Church in Fenton,
Stoke-on-Trent - the heart of the Staffordshire mining community -
to speak to former miners and others about the importance of
preparing a will.
A miner for 22 years until 1994, he was the Deputy Manager at
Trentham Colliery and Florence Colliery, and has been member of the
Institute of Professional Will-Writers since 2007.
His presentation will focus on the dangers of dealing with
will-writers who have no formal qualifications or training, and the
benefits of using a will-writer instead of buying a pre-written
will from retailers like WHSmiths.
He said: "Buying wills off-the-shelf, as many people do, is okay
as long as they're done properly.
"However a simple will is not always the best option and many
need advice tailored to their specific situation, particularly if
they are unmarried with children, or have re-married and have
children from a previous relationship, or wish to protect their
assets from care costs.
"It's also important to speak to an IPW-registered will-writer,
because they are qualified, must abide by an Office of Fair Trading
Code of Practice, and have to have professional indemnity insurance
before they can start trading.
"They then have to undertake at least 12 hours' professional
development training a year to keep up to date."
At the moment there is no legal requirement in England for a
will-writer to have any formal training, which leaves the industry
open to abuse from unscrupulous individuals.
The Scottish Government is planning to regulate the industry in
a similar way to the financial services sector.
David Nixon said: "We've had warnings from Staffordshire County
Council recently about the number of people being conned by bogus
will-writers.
"And a recent BBC Panorama programme focussed on one
unscrupulous individual in particular. This gives all will-writers
a bad name which is not fair.
"The Scottish government will be legislating to ensure all
will-writers conform to acceptable industry practice and I'd like
to see our government do the same here."
David Nixon will be appearing at Temple Street Methodist Church
on Monday 27th September, from 7pm.