Cowboys and Secretaries: If There's a Will, There's a Way

I often make fun of the technically challenged people working in our industry......and for good reason.

We deal in very complex matters of law and regulations and truly skilled help is very under-appreciated. When you couple that with big money and family issues, we have a very volatile mix which even the finest "Risk Management" people fail to understand. In 75% of the cases, relatively little skill is required so companies are lulled into complacency, thinking their systems and templates and their people are doing a "good job". PowerPoint professionals can get by for years before someone discovers they f@#*^ked up some where along the way. (A little off track but a Compliance executive at a small private bank in Singapore told me about a litigation case. Their former Head of Trust screwed up a case. The case was on the books for about 4-5yrs but it didn't come to light until recently when the family retained counsel. While all the blame was placed on the former Head, you need to wonder about the people who administered the case for years without knowing that anything was wrong.)

People are typically hired or retained without any serious inquiries into their skills/knowledge. People are judged more on their sales results or personality than skill. There is a potentially fatal presumption of competence. Who's to question that lawyer? The guy/girl whose been working for 8years the XYZ Trust Company has to know his/her stuff right? Wrong.

The Society of Trust & Estate Practitioners has a some rather scary numbers on "cowboy Will writers": http://www.step.org/news/press_releases/2010/ww_survey_reveals_incompetence.aspx

I presume that the STEP survey was conducted primarily in the UK/Channel Islands, but I would have no doubt that you would get the same, if not worse, results for Asia. The fact that far fewer Asians use Wills makes the problem seem lesser than it is.

There are numerous non-legal professionals like banks, trust companies, accounting firms, wealth managers, IFAs and so-called Will writers, doing Will and estate work. Some are very very good. Some are not. Some will do more harm than good. These are some of the same people doing your trust work.

Play it safe and go to a lawyer right? Not are all lawyers are competent as the recent case of "Soh Eng Beng (as executor and trustee of the Estate of Soh Kim Poo, deceased) v Soh Eng Koon [2010] SGHC 257" demonstrates: http://www.singaporelawwatch.sg/remweb/legal/ln2/rss/judgment/11483.html

The punchline for those who don't like reading: The secretary prepared the Will!

The moral of the story: Be afraid, be very afraid.