This is an important announcement regarding Affiliate membership applications.
The Society of Will Writers introduced the Affiliate grade (Aff.SWW) to allow Full members (MSWW^) to expand their business in an affordable way and allow their employees and consultants to access benefits such as regional group meetings, discounted training, use of the SWW logo and much more. It also promotes consumer confidence through the knowledge that these employees and consultants adhere to the same Code of Practice, CPD and PII requirements that Full members do.
In recent years there has been an increased demand for estate planning services, and naturally many Full members have been looking to take on Affiliates to better support both new and existing clients with their needs. Lately however, some of the applications being submitted for Affiliate membership have been incomplete or incorrect, so this bulletin will explain exactly what information is needed from an applicant and why.
The Affiliate application needs to be completed by two people. Both the applicant and the Full member they are applying to become affiliated to have their own designated sections on the form:
- The applicant should complete Section 1 – Personal Details, providing their home address and personal contact details such as email and telephone. Applications should not be submitted with this section left blank or filled in with the Full member’s contact details.
- The Full member should complete Section 2 – Full Member Details and Section 3 – Organisation Details so it is clear who the applicant is to be affiliated to, what training they have received, as well as what insurance and document storage is in place.
- The applicant should then complete and sign the Declaration, Consent and Code of Practice pages.
- Depending on who is paying for the membership, either the applicant or the Full member can complete the Direct Debit Registration page.
- The applicant should provide 2x passport-style photos for their ID card. These can be updated in future if needed.
Any application submitted which is incomplete or incorrect will be rejected and the applicant will be advised why so that it can be resubmitted for consideration.
The SWW understands that some Full members may not want their Affiliates to be contacted by us or our partners directly, which is why we do not collect the personal data of any applicant to be intrusive, or to contact and market to them where we do not have their express consent. We do however have a duty to ensure that all members are assigned to the correct regional group, that they can be contacted directly by head office for compliance purposes, as well as where it concerns changes to their membership or complaints and disciplinary proceedings, hence the need for the personal details of the applicant.
Full members who do not wish for their Affiliates to receive any marketing from the SWW should ensure that they discuss the options on the Members Consent Form page of the application form with them before submitting it to us.
For more information about the personal data the SWW collects and how we process it, please see our privacy policy here.
If you would like to learn more about the different SWW membership grades, the application process as well as benefits offered to members, please see our Become a Member page here. Otherwise, if you have any questions about Affiliate membership or the application process, please get in touch with a member of the team who will be more than happy to help.
