With a close fit between the preparation of fact-find documents and the generation of a full inheritance plan for a client, SmartForms and Safe4 are working together to bring the combined solution.
Safe4 launched the Digital Inheritance Vault at the Society of Will Writers annual conference in Redditch, UK, in October 2015. This service allows members of the Society to offer a very secure delivery and storage service for the vital documents that make up their clients’ inheritance plans, such as wills, lasting powers of attorney, trusts, deeds, and many others. Clients can access the vault at any time, and if they wish can share it with their family members and executors.
Another facility offered by the Digital Inheritance Vault is the ability to capture the client’s digital legacy. This means that all online account information can be stored safely, and accessed by the executors when probate is being carried out. Thus important details of bank and credit card accounts, mortgages, insurance policies, loans, and many other financial records can be held in the vault. Of increasing importance are other types of account: PayPal, eBay, gambling accounts and subscription services may all contain cash balances at the time of the client’s death, and can be included in the estate if access can be gained by the executor. Together with social media services such as Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, LinkedIn and others, it is possible for all of the important details of a client’s life to be left for future generations.
One of the most important tasks of an estate planner is to conduct a detailed fact-find when a new will, trust or LPA is to be drafted. Should a will, trust or LPA be disputed or contested, the completeness and accuracy of the original fact-find document will be a critical piece of evidence in determining the distribution of the estate. Hence Safe4 have teamed up with SmartForms, who provide an iPad-based facility to capture this critical information in a format that can be passed directly into the client’s Digital Inheritance Vault.
SmartForms was founded by Martin Cotton, an active member of the Society of Will Writers. In addition to the intelligent form functions that include all of the information required to ensure that inheritance documents are properly prepared, Martin has added a workflow facility that permits field-based estate planners to submit partially-completed forms to a central service point, from which progress can be monitored and work reassigned to another planner in the event of sickness or holiday absences.
Because there is such a close fit between the preparation of fact-find documents and the generation of a full inheritance plan for a client, SmartForms and Safe4 are working together to bring the combined solution to the membership of the Society of Will Writers. For more information on how the use of SmartForms can benefit your will-writing business, please contact us.
This article was submitted to be published by Safe4 Information Management Ltd as part of their advertising agreement with Today’s Wills & Probate. The views expressed in this article are those of the submitter and not those of Today’s Wills & Probate.
