The use and implementation of technology in the wills and probate sector has accelerated as a result of the coronavirius pandemic.
Tom Lyes, Director of Engagement at Today’s Wills and Probate spent some time recently speaking to Josif Grace CEO of Legado, to find out what service this piece of technology could provide to the Wills and Probate sector, both from a regulated and unregulated point of view.
Who are Legado?
Legado is a life planning platform, which helps clients to securely and easily organise, store and share their most important documents, files, wishes and memories. Established in 2018, the planning platform has raised significant funding from a range of institutional and angel investors, including M&G, the investment manager, and FNZ, a global platform-as-a-service provider.
Legado’s platform has been designed to help legal services firms with client retention, engagement and intergenerational planning. The service can be integrated, customised and co-branded, providing firms a unique proposition which is understood and valued by clients.
Here Josif explains a little more about the company
You’re backed by M&G and FNZ, two of the biggest financial services and technology companies in the world, that must be exciting? Have you had any more success elsewhere in the world?
Josif commented:
“It’s very exciting to have two major organisations provide their support and backing for the proposition. There are many emerging technologies in this space, without the foundation or backing ours has been built with. They are also clients of ours. This demonstrates that we’re here to stay.”
How are you looking to achieve success in the UK Wills and Probate market?
Josif added:
“Our mission is to transform the way personal planning takes place in the UK and we believe many legal firms will share our vision for future, with a desire to provide the best service possible to clients.”
What potential roadblocks do you think may lie ahead?
Josif said:
“Digital transformation is disrupting the way in which the legal sector operates, with smart technologies enabling new digital products and automated processes across the industry. It is clear that legal tech will play a major role in tomorrow’s legal services landscape.
“This rapidly changing environment, combined with increasing client demand for convenience and digital services, compounds pressure on legal firms. Companies simultaneously face greater cost pressure due to growing competition.
“Whilst Legado provides a plug and play solution, at an attractive price point, firms must still prioritise which digital solutions they want build, which they want to buy and what areas they want to prioritise.”
What’s the impacts of a digital vault solution on wills & probate? I’m a will writer or a probate solicitor how this would affect me or make my job easier?
Josif commented:
“Digital vaults will have a transformational effect on the storage and exchange of documents in the legal sector.
“Consumers are increasingly concerned about the security of their data and who can access it. The secure document storage aspects that Legado offers will provide much-needed reassurance and increased efficiency in a market that is still far too dependent on physical documents and scanned attachments, whilst also providing a unique service that clients recognise as valuable.
“As a will writer, Legado provides means of not only storing a Will but also retaining a client and engaging them at future life moments. Our cobranded service means your clients will stay with you long after the service you provide, whilst also providing windows of opportunity for engagement as well as connecting with the next generation of clients through our sharing capabilities.
“As a probate solicitor, this means having everything in one place, from the moment you receive a case. We’re helping clients to ensure their affairs are in order at every stage of life.”
Digital Assets are a hot topic in this space how do they align with this? What’s your thinking there?
Josif added:
“Digital Assets are set to increase exponentially over the next few years and now make up a key component of an individual’s estate plan. We’ve built specific sections in our digital vault for clients to organise, store and share their digital assets. This includes guided journeys and pre-organised sections to help clients think of all the different digital assets they have.”
Security is really important here. Can you explain some of the security features you have in place?
Josif said:
“Security isn’t something we take lightly. Legado is market-leading in our approach to security. We’ve designed our technology with award-winning digital experts, StormID and have been working closely with our backers M&G and FNZ to ensure the best-in-class planning platform. We’ve created a dedicated page to explain our approach in detail, which can be found here: https://joinlegado.com/security/.”
If a will writer or anyone is really interested in finding out more about this, what should they do next?
Get in touch! Reach out to me, Josif Grace – josif@joinlegado.com or call: 07456636655.
4 responses
This looks exactly the same as “Once I’m Gone” and many other offerings. With so many digital storage products out there, this seems to be further adding confusion than offering a solution.
Not sure I would agree Tony. I’ve been using the Legado platform and it’s very different to the product you’ve mentioned, as it’s integrated into some of the other products on the market.
Great idea
Tomy have you actually used the platform? It’s completely different and not centred around ‘death’