The fourth Today’s Wills and Probate Professional Roundtable took place yesterday, and the event did certainly not disappoint.
Held at Slater and Gordon’s prestigious Manchester City Centre offices, the team couldn’t wait to engage with professionals from across the sector and discuss the challenges faced by this growing industry.
Attendees included both firms and professional organisations from across the sector, with Countrywide, the Society of Will Writers and Legal Eye among those who contributed to the event’s success.
Getting the day off to an insightful start was Peter de Vena Franks of charity Will writing scheme, WillAid. As well as highlighting the growth of the scheme over the past three decades, he also discussed the role it’s played in boosting consumer awareness of estate planning importance, in turn benefitting solicitors, as well as the public at large.
This was followed by an interesting talk from Meridian Client Solicitors, who were also kindly sponsoring the event. Members from their contentious probate team discussed the firm’s approach to long-term relationship management, as well as the benefits of having a team that deal solely with trust and probate disputes.
GDPR was next on the agenda, or rather, what happens after the regulation comes into force. Discussing this, as well as the impact and opportunities it could pose for professionals, was specialist software provider Arken, who we were also proud to have sponsoring the event. The key conclusion from the discussion was that perspective is important; rather than see its implementation as a burden, the GDPR should be seen as a chance for firms to refresh their marketing strategy and focus on nurturing client relationships as well as forging new ones.
Next up was the well-known expert speaker, Dave Knowles, who focussed on a variety of key challenges and pressures currently facing both the sector and professionals. Having spent over 26 years at Scotland Yard, Dave is well versed on all types of fraud and has consulted to a number of key organisations; he was keen to ask attendees probing questions to obtain their thoughts on a number of topical issues. These included Blockchain, cryptocurrency and online wills, all of which sparked lively debate.
The debate didn’t stop there as the day’s final questions were shared among attendees, once again highlighting prominent risks and problems which professionals face on a daily basis. This included opinions on regulation, concerns around professional indemnity insurance and sharing views on numerous tools available to the sector.
Whilst it was clear that there was still much to be discussed, this final discussion brought yet another successful Roundtable to a close.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll be publishing further articles covering different aspects of what discussed on the day. To make sure that you don’t miss an update, don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter.
For more information on future Roundtables, please email karen.babington@practicalvision.co.uk.
