Very rarely is anything in life free. Those things that are free often have no perceived value and where something is provided for free the cost is often absorbed somewhere else (meaning you still pay for it), or it is free because the provider has an ulterior motive.
Examples of where something is perceived to be free include:
- The swimming pool is free to hotel guests; Realistically the costs of running the pool are factored into the price of the hotels rooms.
- Claim your free gift with your first order. Free gifts are often reliant on return custom and costs of other products might be higher to compensate for the free gift.
When you consider the benefits attached to a free service as oppose to those that you paid for, you should consider the strengths and weaknesses of both arguments.
If a Will is being offered for free then there is almost certainly a cost to the provider and you’re likely to pay for this elsewhere through up-sells or add-ons. When a Will writer takes instructions for a Will then this can easily take 2 hours in order for them to take contemporaneous notes. There will then be a cost to to the drafting of the document, the cost of the Will writer’s insurance the cost of the will writer’s fuel. When you take all these things into consideration then the cost you pay for a Will is certainly more reasonable.
When you consider ‘free Will month’ run by charities, these campaigns are often funded by charities in the hope that a charitable legacy will be left in the Will or in anticipation of a donation to the charity when the Will is made.
When it comes to Will storage then serious consideration should be given to the value attached to free storage. With a paid package you should look for benefits like certification of safe storage, scanned copies on file, whether there is a dedicated team of staff on hand to answer storage questions, what the return costs are on the death of the testator and where the documents are held.
In the past the SWW have rescued Will banks from defunct companies and in doing so have seen the reality of where some documents have been stored. A terrible, but true example we have seen was when we collected a small Will bank from a downstairs toilet. Firstly if you’re paying for storage you would presumably never pay to have your Will stored in a downstairs toilet which could be at risk of flooding and probably lacks relevant fire safety standards.
Working with an SWW member who chooses to store with The National Will Archive means your documents will be in our safe custody. We have a dedicated team on hand to answer any questions and can help executors retrieve documents very easily when the time comes.
Remember, free may not always be better and rarely do you ever get something for nothing.
