• March 29, 2024
 Exizent announced as Champagne Sponsor for The British Wills and Probate Awards

Exizent announced as Champagne Sponsor for The British Wills and Probate Awards

This year marks the fourth year of The British Wills and Probate Awards, and we’ve already seen a number of entries coming through, demonstrating the achievements made by those in the sector.

The event is set to run on Thursday 21st October 2021 and will be hosted by the fabulous Jennie Bond, returning for her fourth year. 

This year we are delighted to welcome Exizent as our Champagne Reception sponsor. 

Today’s Will & Probate spoke to Nick Cousins, CEO of Exizent about their involvement in this year’s awards. 

Who are Exizent? 

Exizent is providing the industry platform for professionals involved with managing bereavement, digitizing the probate process.

A ‘tech for good’ business, Exizent was founded on the desire to support people at the most difficult time in their lives. To help when someone passes away, Exizent is working to connect the data and services used by legal services firms, banks and financial institutions, and executors to reduce the administrative burden on those grieving. Exizent reduces uncertainty, increases speed and makes the process more straightforward for everyone involved.

Exizent is making it easier for legal services so they can get back to what’s important – using their specialist knowledge and experience to help their clients.

Nick Cousins, CEO of Exizent, said:

“Leaving financial services, I was determined to create a business that could have a meaningful impact on the lives of the UK population. Having experienced several bereavements myself and watched close friends struggle too, it became clear to me just how lengthy, repetitive and overly complicated the probate process can be. It’s made even more challenging by the emotional turmoil and grief of the loss itself. It struck me that, in contrast to many of the processes and services we engage with today, little had been done to try and transform an experience we are asked to go through at the most difficult time in our lives.

“I became convinced that in this era of digitized services, and more transparent and open access to data, there must be a way to make the process of administering someone’s estate more efficient, simple and secure, and ultimately less stressful for the bereaved.

“The current system is not fit for purpose and I believe technology, carefully designed to solve problems faced by those who use it, is the solution. By adapting, expanding and developing existing, proven technologies and making the data and information needed more easily accessible, there is enormous potential to solve significant issues and make peoples’ lives better.

“Our research shows that the problems around the current probate process are felt by the industry too, and the demand for innovation is clear. Yet most professionals don’t use dedicated software to handle their probate cases, meaning many of the key steps in the administration of a bereavement remain manual and paper-based.

“With our financial lives increasingly fragmented, this task is getting even more onerous, and lockdown has further exacerbated these issues, according to 73% of firms surveyed in our Probate Prospects report.

“Probate is labour intensive, and our research shows that just 7% of legal professionals feel it is as efficient as it could be. Further, only one-in-three think the time it takes to prepare grant of probate is ‘reasonable’. Administration tasks and awaiting responses from institutions are the main causes of delay. With the right technology in place, legal professionals can cut down the time and cost involved with managing probate cases exponentially.

“This is why Exizent is leveraging technology to create the first ever platform that connects data, services and the network of people involved when someone passes away. We are committed to improving the bereavement process, and our mission is to reduce probate uncertainty, inefficiency, and complexity, creating a better experience for everyone involved, particularly those who have lost someone.

Last year we raised £3.6million in investment and focussed on putting together a highly skilled team to develop the first release of the platform. Now in 2021, we’re using that foundation to further our goal of becoming a fundamental part of the bereavement ecosystem, delivering benefits to all the different groups involved.”

 

Get involved with the British Wills and Probate Awards 2020. 

There’s still time to submit your entries for the British Wills and Probate Awards. 

Don’t forget we’ve got some exciting new categories so we can continue to recognise and acknowledge the celebrate the sector. The new categories are: 

  • Will Writing Sole Practitioner of the Year 
  • Most Reward Charity Initiative 
  • Chambers of the Year 
  • Funeral Plan Provider of the Year 
  • IT Team of the Year 
  • The Today’s Wills & Probate Industry Champion. 

You can submit your entries here.

Join the Conversation #BWAPAwards2021 

Jennifer van Deursen