|
"On average it can cost someone IEP1,000 to create a will, but we offer an option to create a will on-line for free. We have created a site with legal intelligence behind it for Irish people," professor Brian A. Carroll, solicitor and director of Wills.ie told ElectricNews.Net
Carroll said that under Irish law, a will must be printed and signed by the individual as well as have the signatures of two witnesses, so a will needs to exist in more than just an electronic form. He said that the will, once created on the Web site, must be printed and signed and that Wills.ie offers to store the hard copy document free of charge.
However, he said the idea behind the business is that people can break the initial barrier in drafting and preparing a will by doing it on-line, and avoiding a visit to a solicitor's office.
Wills.ie employs four full-time people in Cork and is launching a television campaign next week to attract visitors to its site. As well as a service for wills, the company offers a probate service, which is undertaken to prove the validity of a will after a person has died. The probate service is expected to create the bulk of the revenue for Wills.ie as there are more legal services required in these instances.
According to the company, almost 50 percent of people in Ireland die intestate, and Carroll explained the role of the company, "We launched Wills.ie in order to make wills more accessible to the Irish consumer and to take away the foreboding associations that prevail among the public in Ireland in relation to drafting a will."
The site is hosted by Web World and the transactions for those that pay for wills are completed in SSL (secure socket layer) security.
Carroll concluded, "Although Wills.ie is only for the Irish audience, I have compared it to offerings in other countries. There is a similar service in the UK, although it is not as comprehensive as Wills.ie and I couldn't find anything equivalent in the USA."
Professor Carroll's practice, Brian A. Carroll Solicitors, is a member of the Law Society of Ireland. Carroll is a law professor at the University College Cork.
For more information visit http://www.wills.ie.
|
