The digitalisation of businesses has touched virtually every sector in some way, not least Estate Planning. Here, software for Will Writers to produce Wills and LPAs has existed for many years, however one company saw the pandemic as an opportunity to create a fully digitised end to end estate planning proposition for consumers to use themselves.
The company in question is Honey Legal, who have been trading and growing since 2010. They built HoneyPro, which embraces a number of valuable features and technologies.
How does the software work?
Customers start by completing their Customer Review Report, which uses AI driven technology to serve contextual questions to drive out a client specific and highly personalised recommendation. At any stage of the process, if the user gets stuck, they can ask ‘Willobee’ a virtual legal expert. The question is scanned from the database and contextual answers are displayed. If the answer doesn’t match the user’s need, then it goes to a live Legal Expert for a real time response. New questions and answers are added to the database, so Willobee learns more and more information, reducing the number of live interventions required.
Delivering an easy to follow recommendation
The Client review report provides the legal advice for the client to follow in a very user friendly manner. Each area of the client’s needs is summarised in terms of this is what you told us, this is what and why you need a particular product, and these are implications if you decide not to include a recommendation in your package. The client is then presented with a set of packages to meet some or all their needs with prices to reflect the legal documents of each. Discounts are given for combining products together and they can pay in one go or monthly over 12 to 60 months.
Implementing the advice
The client then sets up their user account before HoneyPro hand holds them through the inputting of their instructions for their Wills, Trusts and LPAs. The technology is designed for single data entry, has checks and balances and prompts to ensure the user completes the process. Once their documents have been completed, they are checked by one of the legal team before being released for the client to sign. Once signed, the software prompts them to return for free lifetime storage. This is another opportunity for checking the documents, as often Wills etc are invalid due to their incorrect signature and execution.
Once the client’s documents are safely stored, they have access to the digital versions from their client portal. A major benefit of the service is the ability for existing documents to be updated online free of charge as many times as they like throughout the client’s lifetime.
HoneyPro for professionals
The business model for HoneyPro includes use by Advisers and other intermediary businesses to add value to their core proposition. In the FS space, HoneyPro is being embraced by mortgage advisers, financial planners, later life advisers, wealth managers and brokers in the protection and GI markets. With The Consumer Duty on the horizon, many of these firms see the inclusion of estate planning either on a referral or guided model basis, as meeting their obligations to ensure clients have Wills and LPAs in place. The old days of saying you need a Will etc. and leaving it to the client will no longer be tenable. The old days of referring your client to a local solicitor are being replaced with market leading technology which puts the adviser fully in control of their client relationship and provides attractive commercial terms to go with it.
