Last week, Today’s Wills and Probate collaborated with foreign exchange specialist, Currency Index, to bring executors within firms an exclusive and enlightening webinar on how they can protect and preserve the value of their clients’ estates substantially.
If you missed the webinar, it’s available to view here.
Driven mainly by technological innovation, globalisation is firmly cemented in a modern 21st century world by enriching the globe scientifically and culturally and benefiting many people economically as well.
In terms of probate, globalisation has meant that it is more and more likely that beneficiaries of estates live overseas or that estates include overseas assets and shares. With testators owning overseas property, executors would need to organise for the property to be sold and the proceeds repatriated to the UK.
Foreign exchange has become more and more common when dealing with administration of estates, the increase in immigration from the 1990s to 2008 has meant people living abroad have estate in UK and estate abroad that will need expatriating.
Established in 2008 and regulated by FCA, Currency Index specialise in making foreign exchange payments for law firms. Banks are making large profits when firms instruct their bank to transfer funds to an overseas bank account which often leads to the beneficiary receiving a poor exchange rate and losing large amounts of money.
Currency Index assist law firms by executing currency exchange and international transfer processes that are solely in your clients’ best interests by offering a far more competitive exchange rates than banks. The currency specialist can get better exchange rates because they are buying from the live market whereas banks tend to buy their currency in bulk at the beginning of the day. This means It is possible for beneficiaries to typically save between 1-3% of the amount transferred.
And the transfer process could not be simpler too, exchange rates are agreed and fixed, solicitors transfers the GBP to Currency Index’s safeguarded client account and Currency Index then transfer funds to the foreign account. There are no transfer fees and for the vast majority of cases it is a same day transfer too.
Even if your firm only deals with one or two cases a year, it is worth using a currency specialist as the difference it makes to beneficiaries is significant and would be extremely worthwhile to have a process in place to cover it. It will also demonstrate to your clients that you are looking after their best interests by recommending solutions to potentially save them money by getting the most value out of the estate.
