Supporting The Will Company with Enhanced Data Cleansing

The Will Company was formed in 1995 and, as full members of the Society of Will Writers & Estate Planning Practitioners, offers Will writing services for Financial Advisors and their clients.

Zoe Oliver, Business Manager, at The Will Company has been using Estatesearch’s Will Bank Management services for over a year now.

She explains:

“I first found out about Estatesearch’s services when I met the company’s Strategic Relationship Director, Emma Baddaley, at the Society of Will Writers Conference. I learned how Estatesearch’s unique service helps practitioners manage data more efficiently to maximise their potential pipeline of work from existing customers, while also allowing firms to understand their client dataset in terms of mortality and comply with GDPR. After a discussion with Emma, we decided to try the screen and cleanse phases as a pilot for one of our smaller storage banks.

The Challenges of Orphan Will Storage Banks

“We have our own large Will Bank of around 14,000 records which we keep up to date. However, we often take on other orphan Will storage banks. This may be where a Financial Advisor or another Will Writer has retired or passed away.

In the past, we would have worked through the new records, writing out to clients to ensure information was up to date and to inform them where their Will was now being held. From a new storage bank of around 200 Wills, we might find that 40 to 50 people had moved address and we were unable to reach them. This would mean a lot of wastage in terms of postage and time taken to try and contact people no longer living at the address on file. Dealing with responses would also take a few days’ work.

How Screening and Cleansing Improves Efficiency

“From the screening pilot it quickly became clear that Estatesearch’s Will Bank Management service would be a much more efficient and cost effective way of updating and managing the records. Estatesearch’s screening and cleansing service now confirms if someone’s details have changed or they have moved and their new address. It also confirms if they have passed away, which enables us to tailor subsequent communication to families about the location of the Will.

I simply supply Estatesearch with an Excel spreadsheet, and the colour coded spreadsheet is returned in the same format, so I can easily sort the data into groups of people who have moved or passed away. A mail merge and appropriate letter can then be sent in just a few minutes, and I know all the contact information is up to date.

Even if there is a missing postcode, no date of birth, or people have moved abroad, Estatesearch is able to match records for us.

Turning Client Communication into Meaningful Outcomes

“As a result of our client communication, we have had all sorts of responses. Some families have been so thankful we have got in touch where a relative has passed away and they had no idea there was a Will. We have also earned work from clients taking up the offer of a Will Review. For those who have moved away and forgotten to renew direct debits, payments for Will storage have been reinstated. We have also earned referral fees for Probate cases passed to the Probate specialist firm Laurelo. Last year, one of Laurelo’s biggest Probate cases came through our referral following client communication after an Estatesearch screening exercise.

Supporting The Will Company’s Growth Plans

“As an organisation, we aim to continue to expand by taking on more Will Banks from financial advisors or other retiring professionals. It would have been difficult to manage the influx of much more work without Estatesearch’s Will Bank Management services. Now, with Estatesearch’s help we are confident we can efficiently update orphan storage banks and communicate appropriately with our clients as our firm grows.”

Originally published on Today’s Wills and Probate.