Mortgage Strategy: You don't have to be a lawyer to sell wills

A couple of weeks ago I looked at why wills and trusts represent a new revenue opportunity for brokers. One of the main reasons is that around two-thirds of your clients are likely to have no will.

But what level of technical expertise do you need before you can start offering this kind of advice?

Well, you don't need to retrain as a lawyer, nor do you need formal qualifications. And wills and trusts are not regulated by the Financial Services Authority.

Your role is purely to sell the concept to your clients and relay the basics of asset protection including marriage after death, bloodline protection, long-term care and life assurance including death-in-service benefits, plus potential Inheritance Tax savings.

You need to do a bit of work to obtain a sufficient understanding of these areas but this can be done in a day or two, not a year. Many of you will have a reasonable understanding of these areas already, which will make it easier still.

Once you have discussed your clients' circumstances with them and explained the ways they may be exposed through incorrect or absent estate planning and asset protection, the creation of wills and trusts can be passed onto a third party legal services company.

And any advice you give will be protected by the legal partner's professional idemnity cover.

To unlock this opportunity you simply need to understand the subject and the best way to introduce it to your clients. I'll explain that in my next article.

To see the original article, go to http://www.theassetprotectionstrategy.com/pr/100312MortgageStrategy.pdf