By Emma Baddaley, Strategic Relationship Director, Estatesearch
Proactive Will bank management can offer an opportunity to re-connect with old clients and potentially generate new business. However, keeping records up to data is a constant challenge, and data integrity quickly declines if it’s not routinely managed.
Our own findings suggest that an average of 10% of Will Bank clients are already deceased. In one example, we identified 60 deceased subjects over 12 months, where the firm was only aware of one in three of those.
However, according to GDPR Article 5, customer data should be kept “accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date; every reasonable step must be taken to ensure that personal data that are inaccurate, having regard to the purposes for which they are processed, are erased or rectified without delay”.
We recently launched a new Will Bank Management Service to help practitioners manage data more efficiently. The unique service allows firms to understand their client dataset in terms of mortality and comply with GDPR. However, crucially, it also offers the opportunity to maximise their potential pipeline of work from existing customers.
Michael Tobin, Marketing and Business Development Manager, Grant Saw Solicitors LLP explains: “We have over 400 Wills that were made in 2013. Last year, we invested time into getting the data stored in a digital format. Our Excel spreadsheet was simply uploaded to Estatesearch’s secure portal and I was notified once the data cleanse had taken place. I was able to download the cleansed database plus a password protected report which clearly indicated the number of people who had passed away in addition to the living categorised by a high, medium or low degree of confidence that their data was correct.
“We are now confident that our data is up to date, we comply with GDPR and we can now move ahead with our sensitive, proactive communication campaigns in a professional way.”
Estatesearch’s Will Bank Management service includes three stages – Screening, Cleansing and Notifications. The initial screen provides a free health check of the testator database. This enables firms to see the percentage of out-of-date records, before proceeding with a full cleanse.
Estatesearch’s bespoke platform pulls information from several data sources to complete the cleansing phase, identifying deceased subjects and the date of death as well as forwarding addresses for anyone who may have moved. Finally, the ongoing monitoring phase notifies firms of life events which may impact files and ensures databases can be updated easily, while alerting the professional to the potential needs of a client.
Bennett Oakley Solicitors is another firm which has benefited from proactive Will bank management and the team were involved in the trial of the solution. Practice Manager, Samuel Cash confirms: “We have a sizable Will Bank of around 10,000 Wills. Because Bennett Oakley was established in 1957 many of these Wills were historic and some originated from another Will Bank we purchased in 2012. It was difficult to assess the integrity of the data and we had no way of tracking the deceased or anyone who had moved house.
“Our spreadsheet was cleansed and a report was provided which contained significantly more information about each client. The report informed us if clients were deceased and where they were confirmed to be still living, it also provided their up-to-date address details.
“We were then able to write to selected clients with a personal, sensitive and light-touch message, in some cases simply saying ‘we are here to help when you need us’. We feel it’s much better if clients receive something from us before they need to contact us.”
“Ongoing Notifications of any changes of address, or if a client has passed away, mean we can now be proactive in our communication and offer a more timely and appropriate service which has been well received by our clients.”
Estatesearch can now help firms to maintain the health and integrity of their Will Bank while also maximizing the opportunity to boost leads through proactive Will Bank Management, re-connecting with clients to update Wills.
Book a demo with a member of our team to discuss your firms Will Bank here.