•Says digital property planning will increase alternatives for legal professionals
Wale Igbintade
A Nigerian expertise firm, Castle eWill and Trust Limited, has launched a digital estate-planning platform designed to simplify Will preparation, encourage succession planning and make estate-planning companies extra accessible to Nigerians.
The platform permits adults to put together, replace, securely retailer and handle their Wills and Trusts on-line, with the goal of serving to people defend their households, protect their belongings and make sure that their needs are revered after loss of life.
The Chief Executive Officer of the corporate, Mr Olumide Olaiya, mentioned the initiative was based on the idea that everybody ought to have the chance to plan for the way forward for their family members, no matter their monetary circumstances or location.
According to him, the corporate hopes to turn into Africa’s most trusted digital platform for property planning, Will preparation, Trust administration and probate assist.
Olaiya mentioned many Nigerians postponed getting ready Wills as a result of they thought-about the method uncomfortable, difficult or related solely to rich people.
He defined that Castle eWill was looking for to change the notion by offering an accessible start line for property planning whereas encouraging customers to receive applicable skilled authorized recommendation.
The platform’s Will preparation course of includes 5 levels, starting with the availability of private info, adopted by particulars of executors, trustees, beneficiaries and belongings.
Users are subsequently required to present particulars of their items and desires, provide details about witnesses, and evaluate and make sure the doc earlier than printing it and submitting it to the related High Court Probate Registry.
Olaiya mentioned the method was designed to make Will preparation extra easy whereas incorporating safeguards to defend customers’ info and assist the authentication of their paperwork.
On knowledge safety, the corporate mentioned recordsdata had been encrypted earlier than being written to disk, whereas makes an attempt to entry them had been logged.
The platform additionally incorporates identity-verification measures, together with e mail affirmation, authentication of government-issued identification paperwork and comparability with a dwell digicam verify.
According to the corporate, these measures are meant to set up that the person making a Will is the individual recognized within the doc.
Another function is a QR seal hooked up to each Will generated via the platform.
Castle eWill mentioned scanning the code permits recipients to confirm the doc’s identification, model and date of issuance, serving to establishments, together with banks and registries, decide whether or not a duplicate is real and present.
The platform additionally sends reminders encouraging subscribers to evaluate their Wills each 12 months and following important life occasions that might have an effect on their property plans.
Such occasions embrace marriage, the start of a kid and the acquisition of property.
Addressing issues that digital Will-making companies may diminish the function of authorized practitioners, Castle eWill maintained that its platform was meant to increase, fairly than undermine, alternatives for legal professionals.
The firm argued that making property planning extra accessible may deliver extra Nigerians who had by no means consulted legal professionals about Wills or Trusts into the method, thereby creating further demand for skilled authorized companies.
The firm additionally expressed its intention to collaborate with legal professionals throughout Nigeria to present these companies.
Drawing a comparability with developments within the banking trade, Castle eWill mentioned the introduction of web banking and cellular functions had expanded entry to banking companies fairly than eradicated the necessity for banks and banking professionals.
It maintained {that a} related strategy may apply to authorized companies, with expertise serving to extra folks take step one in direction of succession planning whereas legal professionals present the experience required to tackle complicated authorized points.
According to the corporate, skilled authorized recommendation stays significantly vital in estates involving difficult household constructions, company belongings, collectively owned properties, customary and Islamic regulation, overseas belongings, taxation, guardianship, enterprise succession and competing claims amongst beneficiaries.
The firm maintained that expertise may widen entry to property planning, whereas skilled authorized judgment remained important to guaranteeing that people and households acquired applicable recommendation and that their needs had been correctly documented and applied.
