Draft consumer protection law compliance guidance for unregulated providers of will writing and other legal services

The purpose of the draft guidance is to help unregulated providers of will writing, online divorce and pre-paid probate services in the UK to better understand and comply with their existing obligations under UK consumer protection law.

The CMA has produced the draft guidance as part of its investigation into will-writing and other unregulated legal services, launched in July 2023.

The CMA invites interested parties to respond in writing to the questions set out in Section 3 of the consultation document by 5pm on 13 June 2024.

The consultation may be of interest to:

• businesses offering unregulated legal services to consumers – in particular those providing will writing, online divorce and pre-paid probate services
• self-regulatory trade bodies who operate in the sector
• fellow enforcers of consumer protection law within the UK (including local Trading Standards Services) and consumer advisory groups
• regulated legal service providers active in the will writing, divorce and probate sectors (and their regulators)

The CMA plans to publish the final version of the compliance guidance, and an anonymised summary of the responses that fall within the scope of the consultation together with a list of all respondents (save for individuals), later this year.

When handling personal data (like your contact details), we comply with data protection law, as set out in the UK Data Protection Act 2018 and other law designed to protect sensitive information.

For more information about the CMA’s statutory functions, how the CMA processes personal data and your rights relating to that personal data (including your right to complain), please see the CMA’s Personal Information Charter. Section 4 of the consultation document also provides more information.