•Says digital property planning will increase alternatives for legal professionals
Wale Igbintade
A Nigerian know-how 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 shield their households, protect their belongings and make sure that their needs are revered after demise.
The Chief Executive Officer of the corporate, Mr Olumide Olaiya, stated 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 change into Africa’s most trusted digital platform for property planning, Will preparation, Trust administration and probate assist.
Olaiya stated many Nigerians postponed getting ready Wills as a result of they thought of 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 acceptable skilled authorized recommendation.
The platform’s Will preparation course of contains 5 phases, starting with the supply of private data, adopted by particulars of executors, trustees, beneficiaries and belongings.
Users are subsequently required to present particulars of their presents and desires, provide details about witnesses, and overview and ensure the doc earlier than printing it and submitting it to the related High Court Probate Registry.
Olaiya stated the method was designed to make Will preparation extra easy whereas incorporating safeguards to shield customers’ data and assist the authentication of their paperwork.
On information safety, the corporate stated 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 electronic mail affirmation, authentication of government-issued identification paperwork and comparability with a stay 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 characteristic is a QR seal connected to each Will generated by means of the platform.
Castle eWill stated 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 replica is real and present.
The platform additionally sends reminders encouraging subscribers to overview their Wills each 12 months and following vital life occasions that might have an effect on their property plans.
Such occasions embody marriage, the beginning of a kid and the acquisition of property.
Addressing considerations that digital Will-making companies may diminish the position of authorized practitioners, Castle eWill maintained that its platform was meant to increase, moderately than undermine, alternatives for legal professionals.
The firm argued that making property planning extra accessible may convey 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 stated the introduction of web banking and cellular functions had expanded entry to banking companies moderately than eradicated the necessity for banks and banking professionals.
It maintained {that a} comparable method may apply to authorized companies, with know-how 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 necessary in estates involving difficult household buildings, company belongings, collectively owned properties, customary and Islamic legislation, overseas belongings, taxation, guardianship, enterprise succession and competing claims amongst beneficiaries.
The firm maintained that know-how may widen entry to property planning, whereas skilled authorized judgment remained important to making certain that people and households obtained acceptable recommendation and that their needs had been correctly documented and applied.
