In an interview with Today’s Wills and Probate, Stuart Simpson, Head of Equiniti Benefactor at an international technology-led services and payments specialist company, EQ (known as Equiniti), talks about a Death Notification Service (DNS) and how DNS supports probate professionals when helping grieving families minimise the strain of bereavement.
Tell us about EQ
EQ is an international technology-led services and payments specialist. We have over 5,000 employees, supporting 36 million people in 120 countries and serving c.70% of the FTSE 100. EQ’s purpose is to care for every customer and simplify every transaction, delivered with less of an impact on the environment.
How does it work?
The Death Notification Service (DNS) is a free-to-user service – whether the user is a professional, e.g. a solicitor, or a member of the public – which allows users to tell multiple companies that they need to register a death with one single notification. The purpose of the DNS is to support the recently bereaved, administrators, and professionals by taking a “tell us once” approach and delivering a cross-industry private sector solution.
We launched the DNS in 2018 to support the financial services sector, particularly the banks – but we now work with insurance, pension and wealth management providers, and will be introducing new sectors such as Life and Pensions. In 2020, it was used to make 174,541 notifications.
Why did a share registrar and outsourcer start a bereavement notification service?
It was a fairly natural extension of EQ’s day-to-day work. As a business, we interact with 29 million people globally which gives us a responsibility to offer services that meaningfully help our customers: one of our aims is to “care for customers and simplify transactions when dealing with EQ or delivering solutions to our customers”.
Through our main areas of share registration and pensions administration, we receive and process 250,000-300,000 notifications of deaths per year. This brings a responsibility for easing customer journeys for the bereaved, as well as being aware of the increasing causes of vulnerability for customers. These things added up and we felt we could use this experience to help deliver a service that meets the needs of our service users and clients.
This culminated in 2018 with the design and delivery of the first private sector version of ‘Tell Us Once’, enabling online and telephone support for the bereaved. We recognise that bereavement often creates real vulnerabilities, as well as compounding existing ones, and as such our customer service advisors are not only trained to support the bereaved in taking a notification but also provide advice on other aspects of the complex and often confusing process of managing the affairs of a loved one. This support is central to the service: our advisors are also actively involved in our group vulnerable customer community and many are trained Dementia Friends.
What are your biggest challenges?
Our single biggest challenge is avoiding any negative trade-off between the four main objectives of the service: time, security, user burden, and universality. We would love to do everything instantly, with perfect security, with only one click, and across all sectors and companies – but security has to be the single most important priority when the subject at hand can be so sensitive and vulnerable to fraud.
To assure security with all the organisations we work with, we have to ensure that data principles and policies are aligned, and that the businesses’ operational processes mean that the data is not only provided in a secure manner, but that it creates an audit trail through the DNS to the organisation and the customer account. For instance, the DNS is the only notification service which validates the data provided on the deceased against the Disclosure of Death Registration Information (DDRI) for the UK, with EQ being one of only 11 authorised users of this data for anti-fraud purposes.
We also need to ensure the data we capture is comprehensive enough to meet the needs of the businesses we notify, while avoiding being excessively onerous on the bereaved. Much like turnaround time, we would love to simplify this process more. Equally, by making sure we meet the regulatory and operational requirements of service providers first time round, we can ensure the notifier doesn’t needs to be contacted again and again, removing complexity, frustration and stress from an already emotional situation.
Because of this tightrope balance, expansion has been slower than we would have liked and expected but, on the bright side, cross sector engagement has been good.
How can the DNS support probate practitioners to help grieving families minimise the strain of bereavement?
Simply put, the service aims to expedite notification of the death of a customer to organisations and inform them of the person or entity responsible for managing the affairs of the estate. Prompt notification means that the organisations can confirm details of assets and liabilities to the correct entity in a timely fashion. Members also operate an internal “tell us once” approach which means that all departments become aware of the death and records are updated with the correct contact details. In a time of increased family dynamics and contentious probate and litigation, early notification to organisations who may have assets belonging to the estate helps to protect the estate and ensure they are distributed appropriately by the appointed executors.
More specifically to practitioners, the account creation functionality simplifies regular processes as the notifier’s details are saved and do not need to be input with each notification. The account will also keep a record of previous notifications and allow practitioners to add organisations to be notified at a later date.
We hope to add more helpful streamlining processes for practitioners in the future as there are already a good number currently making use of the DNS – since the service launched, 1,756 practitioner firms have made use of it, with over 70 firms using the service to make notifications regularly. We know we have some helpful features – but if any readers have ideas for other useful developments, please get in touch!
How do you ensure that each notification is acted upon?
EQ contracts directly with each of our members, meaning we have agreements in place to ensure a response is received. We have an agreement that, when a customer relationship exists, all notifications will be responded to within 10 working days. Our relationships with the businesses with which we work means that we are able to create a full audit trail of notifications, as well as having confirmation that our data files have been issued and received securely by each organisation. We also make sure we hold regular service review meetings with our members to raise any MI, trends and known service issues, and remediation discussed. This ensures that we have continued support from the businesses with which we work.
This is clearly an important topic and it’s had increasing media exposure recently. How do you see the service progressing?
It certainly has gained traction over the last few years. There are a few reasons: largely people’s frustration that dealing with a family member’s estate seems unnecessarily complex protracted, and analogue in the modern world of digital accounts and instant solutions. That’s what we’re trying to ease – and, in the long run, solve. The last year has clearly also amplified the need as the pandemic has shed collective light on previously avoided, perhaps uncomfortable topics, and there was a very popular online petition reflecting that. We’re keen to get behind any movement towards increasing the profile of this issue and we’re working with all the organisations we can to find a way to make the service more efficient and impactful over the next few years.
What sets you apart from other similar services?
First and foremost, our service is free to all notifiers regardless of the number of businesses they notify, whether they are a member of the public or practitioner, or how often they use the service.
Further, we’re the only organisation that has a contracted relationship to provide a “tell us once” death notification service to the organisations with which we work, and as such have agreements in place to ensure businesses receive the data securely and act on it. As mentioned, we’re also the only service which is able to validate against the DDRI data to protect the public from fraudulent notifications, which could be made to acquire assets illegally, adding to the security protocols of the businesses with which we work.
What does the future hold for Equiniti?
The last few years have taken EQ from a private business to a listed provider of technology and services with international scale, including a foothold in the U.S. It will be an interesting time as markets recover, and we’re well placed to grow, with a new incoming Chief Executive to lead us into this next phase.
In terms of the DNS, as always, we’re focusing on expanding the list of companies and sectors we work with to make bereavement notification as easy as possible.
