Digital Estate Planning Organise every aspect of your life in a secure inheritance vault.
How to overcome the overlooked problems with going paperless
So much of our lives now takes place online. Gone are the days when you might keep all your account statements, policy details and legal paperwork in physical files in a study or home office.
Going paperless is great for the environment. It reduces your carbon footprint. And, in an age of never-ending updates and changes to terms & conditions, it helps save space in your home.
But it also gives rise to new challenges. For individuals, their families, and - further down the line - their executors. Problems that are exacerbated by data protection and privacy controls.
We've partnered with Legado Technologies to create a secure digital inheritance vault. With this, you can:
- Store any file or document - from deeds and insurance policies to music tracks and videos
- Keep your passwords secure and protect precious personal memories
- Maintain your privacy while enabling named individuals to access your documents on an 'as needs' basis at predetermined milestones
- Make it easy for executors to access key information when you die, speeding up the probate process by as much as 3-4 months
Our Digital Estate Planning lightens the burden for your loved ones in the future. And it provides weighty insights you can use in the present.
Help your family while you can ... and before you can't
If you were to die or lose capacity tomorrow, would your closest family members or attorney be able to piece together your finances or find family heirlooms? Would they know where to look? Or even what they were looking for?
Now ask yourself how much you know about the login details for your bank accounts, subscriptions, policies, and investments.
How many different usernames and passwords do you have? Have you managed to memorise them? Or, like most people, do you rely on your phone or internet browser to remember them for you?
If losing your phone would make it difficult for you to sign in, just think how much harder it would be for your family to access just one of your accounts - assuming they know what products and services you had in the first place.
With our Digital Estate Planning, you can organise every aspect of your life in a secure online vault, just as your parents or grandparents might have done with a physical filing system.
You can make it easy for your spouse, partner, or children to find important information when the time comes. Without compromising your privacy and confidentiality in the meantime.
Help your executors and protect your loved ones' inheritance
What happens when executors can't find or access important information about your estate? They have to call on the help of professionals. That takes time and it costs money. A lot of money.
What it really means, though, is your loved ones are left waiting months, maybe even years, to receive their inheritance. And when it does finally arrive, it may well be significantly less than you had intended.
How high can those professional fees be? Here are some illustrative examples:
- Typically, a bank would charge between 8% and 10% of your total gross assets to deal with probate. So if you had an estate worth £1 million, that would mean fees in the region of £80,000 to £100,000.
- What if your executors were to use a solicitor? High street solicitors would likely charge between 3% and 6% of your gross assets. So, for a £1 million estate, that would mean fees of between £30,000 and £60,000. Even
- Even a trust corporation would charge at least 1% to 2%. Sticking with the same example, this would reduce what's available for your family's inheritance by around £10,000 to £20,000.
But with our Digital Estate Planning, you can organise all your financial records and legal documents in one place. You can arrange for your chosen executors to be granted access to up-to-date information on your death.
The Society of Will Writers has estimated that using a digital inheritance vault will shorten the time needed for probate by 3-4 months. So you can save your executors time. And you can save your estate thousands of pounds in professional fees.
You can put your executors in a position where they can do everything themselves. Or they can rely on our help for a modest fee. We would already have access to the same information, which means we're able to keep our fees low.
Get a bird's-eye view of your finances
By now, you know that effective estate planning isn't just about what happens after you're gone. It's also about making sure your finances are working for you now and in the future.
Some people are proactive when it comes to reviewing their pensions, mortgages, investments, and life insurance policies. But many others don't know how much they have. With whom. What the interest rate is. Or what they are getting by way of return.
With our Digital Estate Planning, you can see everything in one place.
It gives you visibility of your financial, tax, and legal position. So you can identify shortfalls in your planning and unlock opportunities for growth.
Better still, with our backgrounds in estate, tax, and financial planning, we can help you see how everything fits together. And how you might better arrange things.
How it works
You will be assigned a Digital Estate Planning (DEP) manager. With regular review meetings throughout the year, they will conduct gap analyses and arrange and oversee meetings with other professionals you engage, such as mortgage, legal, and financial advisers.
Your DEP manager will help you see which products and policies you need to revisit.
For instance, let's say you have a property portfolio of 5 properties, with different mortgages for each one. Over time as your portfolio evolves, as you buy and sell properties, you may not realise what products and policies you have.
You may not appreciate how changes to legislation have transformed a helpful product into something harmful to your estate.
We can help you see what's no longer valid, what needs updating, and where shortfalls and opportunities lie.
Start addressing the blind spots in your planning
Contact us today to book your free hour of advice and find out how we can help you.
We'll listen to your wishes, explore your circumstances, and give you our recommendations. There are no obligations. We'll let you know our fixed fees for carrying out the work we recommend. But you are free to accept or decline.
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