Wills in North America vs England & Wales

Today's Wills & Probate Podcast

Tim Hewson joins the Today's Wills and Probate podcast to discuss LegalWills - his Canadian-based technology company providing will writing and estate planning services in Canada and North America.
The business started in a bar in Ottawa where Tim and his colleagues were discussing whether any of them, all successful tech high-flyers, had a will or had considered any form of later life and succession planning. Somewhat serendipitously none of them had and it sparked the idea to launch the business in 2001.
In the time since Tim and his small team have built up the business offering Will writing services in North America, Canada, South Africa and England and Wales; each providing a unique challenge to the software and workflows.
The discussion moves on to the differing speed at which the various jurisdictions, sometimes even within the same country in the case of the USA, are adopting innovation and technology. Electronic signing and storage is one example, says Tim, where it's important we keep up with the changing legislation to ensure our product and service is where it needs to be.
The law as changing as well; Tim uses the example of cohabitation and 'Common Law' relationships where some states have greater legal protections that other which have to be accounted for in estate and succession planning.
On the general trends over the past 20+ years in the sector Tim bemoans the speed of innovation and change, identifying it often needs legislative intervention and lobbying to enact. But greater acceptance of digital in our daily lives has made online wills more accessible and acceptable, which, says Tim, can only be a good thing.
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