Working with Private client teams, Inheritance Data offer a range of efficient and effective services to help streamline the process of estate administration and mitigate risks that can occur once distribution is complete.
What can Inheritance Data offer to private client teams?
Through our secure online platform, designed and developed by working closely with our professional clients, we offer an award-winning financial asset and liability Search, digital asset search, will search and the ability to place national and local S.27 legal notices.
All services can be instructed individually or as one when conducting a Financial Asset Search, removing the need for multiple forms or platform.
The process developed by Inheritance Data, helps Executors and administrators to fulfil legal obligations and mitigate against future risks.
What does a Financial Asset and Liability Search Cover?
A joint financial Asset and Liability search is the only way to undertake a comprehensive search for any accounts, policies, shares and more that might be due to an estate prior to administration, whilst the liability search provides a comprehensive list of any liabilities that the executor or administrator may be unaware of.
The financial Asset search contacts over 200 financial institutions to request a full search for any accounts or policies that the deceased may have held. The search will uncover any type of account whether it is active, closed or dormant. Searching for information held by banks, building societies, pensions, life insurers, shares and more.
The search provides a “Match” or “No Match” for every institution along with relevant information or correspondence enabling targeted follow up.
A search will give a clear picture of estate accounts that the personal representative may or may not be aware of.
To help identify estate accounts and reduce the risk of missed debts and liabilities, our liability search performs an electronic check of digital credit data held by Equifax. The search includes information on, open and closed current accounts, credit cards, mortgages and loans as well as utility providers. The system will also undertake a search for outstanding bankruptcies, CCJ’s and IVA’s.
Why should I place a legal notice?
As executor or administrator, one of your legal responsibilities is to uncover and settle any debts against the estate.
The placement of both national and local notices helps to demonstrate that reasonable steps have been taken to locate and notify creditors prior to distributing estate assets.
Failure to place a Section 27 notice, could result in the Personal Representatives personally becoming liable for any potential creditors of the estate. With a streamlined process, our system will place an official entry in the London Gazette as well as local advertisements in with just the tick of a box.
Why should I conduct a Will search?
Through our partnership with the National Wills Register, our platform enables a quick and easy search of over 10 million electronic Will registrations, as well as a geographically targeted search for Wills that have not been registered. The Will search helps to avoid issues arising later in the process of distributing an estate during probate having identified whether a Will exists and who holds the most up-to-date version before any probate work is undertaken.
A recent study conducted by the National Wills Register, revealed that 1 in 5 Will searches result in a Will being located where the estate was either presumed intestate, or a later Will being discovered that would supersede a previous Will.
So how does all this help mitigate risk?
The services available through Inheritance Data all help to ease the process of Estate Administration and protect the personal representatives from future liabilities.
Every Financial Asset & Liability Search also comes with a unique Estate Distribution Warranty. This means that should an asset come to light in within 10 years of a search being placed, additional costs to the estate will be covered up to the value of £10,000.
The steps taken all help to achieve industry best practice and ensure that vital due diligence has been conducted prior to any distribution of assets. This is also recognised widely by insurance providers after reporting by the UK Legal Technology Association (UKLTA) confirm that 30-40% of law firms received a discount in their PI because of the use of innovative Legal Tech which reduces risk.
For more information on the services available to support private client teams, please visit www.inheritancedata.co.uk or call 01603 673250.
This article was submitted to be published by Inheritance Data as part of their advertising agreement with Today’s Wills and Probate. The views expressed in this article are those of the submitter and not those of Today’s Wills and Probate.
