The government has legalised video witnessing of wills – making it easier for people to record their final wishes during the coronavirus pandemic.
As Kinherit previously commented, this is expected to encourage people to put their affairs in order, knowing they can do so safely and legally.
Risk
The procedure is designed to be robust. For starters, it must involve all the relevant people, be clearly visible and recorded live. So far so good. But there is the argument that the government’s process is open to abuse and outright fraud. The risk is that the video-recording bit can be done perfectly, but how do you keep a Will (a physical document) stored alongside recorded videocalls? What happens if a recording goes missing? Is the Will still valid? Keeping a copy certainly helps against challenges around validity, undue influence, fraud and mental capacity (for more government guidance see here).
Ahead of the game
Kinherit has been ahead of the game: all our telephone calls are recorded, as are all video witnessing calls. By saving recordings, asset details and other information to make the Executor’s job simpler, we make the process highly robust. Importantly, by recording the video-signing, we can help solve a common area of challenge where a witness is not around to verify the contents of a Will. Using our Kinvault digital storage platform, we can extend our service beyond Will planning, and we even include a handover service to securely deliver the plan after the customer has died. We are pioneers of this 21st-century solution to an age-old problem: how to verify the wishes of deceased people.
Shielding or self-isolating
If you are shielding or self-isolating and want to make a Will we can take you through the process in a simple, safe and secure manner. If technology, risks around fraud or potential challenges around mental capacity are a concern, we have systems in place which offer protection.
