I (David Towson) thought you may be interested in an experience I had at a BNI meeting a few weeks ago.
Two of us were hoping to join as ‘will writers’, but for obvious reasons only one of us would be invited.
My opposition was a rival consultant. Things started to go wrong for him when he declined to give his one minute talk, on the basis that you couldn’t talk for a minute on wills (all of our consultant’s could talk on this subject for days, if not weeks!).
At the end of the meeting we were both ‘collared’ separately by the IFA and the solicitor, who were obviously checking us out by testing our knowledge.
The opposition had never heard of the Phizackerley case so he failed the test miserably.
To cap it all he even asked the solicitor for advice on inheritance tax, explaining that he was worried that his elderly mother, who lived alone, was unwell and might have an inheritance tax liability. He wanted to do a conveyance to put the property in his name. I thought he was getting mixed up between a Property Protection Will and an Inheritance Tax will, but kept quiet while the conversation developed.
It transpired that she only had a small amount in total assets so I had the exquisite pleasure of hearing a litigation solicitor, who did not do wills, informing a rival trained consultant that his mother had no inheritance liability. He looked visibly relieved but was totally discredited.
You can guess who got the invitation to join BNI!
Incidentally I was also sounded out by an IFA with the same Phizackerley test.
LSUK are pleased to confirm how well their consultant’s are trained and constantly updated with industry knowledge.
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