Automating the Probate Process

Automating the Probate Process

Article written by Nick Cousins, CEO of Exizent. Nick presented a seminar on Evolving Legal Processes for a Digital World at LegalEx's upcoming Spotlight on the 31st March. You can now watch this session on demand here.    

Nick Cousins is Co-Founder and CEO of Exizent, a legaltech business seeking to make the estate administration process far simpler for both clients and law firms. Nick has over 20 years of experience across the financial and service sector, having previously been Chief Product Owner at Barclays.

Nick is determined to bring real benefits to people at the hardest of times, with his own personal experience leading him to tackle the problems around estate administration.

Our lives are increasingly dispersed and varied, and our personal finances are no exception. Having experienced several bereavements myself and watched close friends struggle  it became clear to me just how lengthy, repetitive and overly complicated the probate process can be.

It’s something made even more challenging by the emotional turmoil and grief of the loss itself, and it struck me that, in contrast to many of the processes and services we engage with today, little had been done to try and transform estates administration. We want to change that. 

Performing executry work is more complex than ever, with estates typically spread over a growing number of banks and institutions. A lack of standardisation and the limited solutions available mean too much time is wasted on administration.

In an era of digitised services, with more transparent and open access to information, we are leveraging technology to connect all of the data, services and the network of people involved when someone passes away.

We want to make the process of administering someone’s estate more efficient, simple and secure, ultimately making it less stressful for the bereaved. We beinging work with banks, share registrars and other institutions to build standardised requests and responses. 

The current system is not fit for purpose and just 7% of legal professionals feel probate is as efficient as it could be. Technology, carefully designed to solve problems faced by those who use it, is the solution. The industry demand for innovation is clear: by adapting, expanding and developing existing, proven technologies, and making the data and information needed more easily accessible, there is enormous potential to solve significant issues and make peoples’ lives better.

We are committed to improving the bereavement process, which starts with executry teams having the right tools in place. Doing so makes it easier for legal services so they can get back to what’s important – using their specialist knowledge and experience to help their clients.

Our dedicated legal services software is a bespoke cloud-based solution which enables legal services firms to integrate directly with financial institutions. One such feature that is extremely helpful in achieving our goal is the Court Form Automation, designed to ease the administrative strain for legal professionals undertaking an estate. 

Last year we raised £3.6 million in investment and put together a highly skilled team to develop the first release of the platform. Fast forward to today, we’re using that foundation to further our goal of becoming a fundamental part of the bereavement ecosystem, delivering benefits to all the different groups involved.

Article written by Nick Cousins, CEO of Exizent. 

Nick Cousins is Co-Founder and CEO of Exizent, a legaltech business seeking to make the estate administration process far simpler for both clients and law firms. Nick has over 20 years of experience across the financial and service sector, having previously been Chief Product Owner at Barclays.

Nick is determined to bring real benefits to people at the hardest of times, with his own personal experience leading him to tackle the problems around estate administration.