Bristol-based FiveWays Financial Planning has launched a suite of legal services for clients with Bath-based OmniaLegal.
OmniaLegal offers a telephone-guided lasting power of attorney service for £250 plus VAT and a simple will for £125 plus VAT, with FiveWays clients benefitting from a 10 per cent discount from these prices.
In most cases, straightforward wills and ‘lasting power of attorney’ can be set up using a combination of OmniaLegal’s online forms and questionnaires and a telephone consultation.
Steve Poland, a director at FiveWays, said: “We chose OmniaLegal because they are extraordinarily efficient compared with most other law firms. They use technology to simplify the process and it is very user-friendly for the client.
“We know clients are often slow or reluctant to engage in making wills or setting up LPAs. This is partly because they don’t like the idea of a formal visit to a lawyer and are anxious about the fees they may have to pay.”
Speaking to FTAdviser, Chris Gilchrist, another director at FiveWays Financial Planning, said that the lasting power of attorney issue has become more important for two reasons.
“We are hearing more cases of people who didn’t get LPAs in place in time.
“Secondly, we’ve been recommending to clients for years that they should set up an LPA and the majority of them don’t do it because they are scared of the legal costs.”
He added that the service was very user friendly and that the firm were not aware of anything else like this on the market at present.
“We already had five or six clients use this service before it officially launched - they love it because it’s very simple. We are hoping it will result in all clients who should have LPAs having them.”
Lorreine Kennedy, head of care fee advice at Carematters, told FTAdviser that many financial advisers would choose to have legal teams in-house for ease when asked if this was a service that she would consider using.
She said Carematters does this kind of work in-house already.
ruth.gillbe@ft.com
