•Says digital property planning will broaden alternatives for attorneys
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 allows 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 property and make sure that their needs are revered after dying.
The Chief Executive Officer of the corporate, Mr Olumide Olaiya, stated the initiative was based on the assumption 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 develop into Africa’s most trusted digital platform for property planning, Will preparation, Trust administration and probate help.
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 place to begin for property planning whereas encouraging customers to get hold of applicable skilled authorized recommendation.
The platform’s Will preparation course of contains 5 phases, starting with the availability of private data, adopted by particulars of executors, trustees, beneficiaries and property.
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 simple whereas incorporating safeguards to defend customers’ data and help the authentication of their paperwork.
On knowledge 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 e mail affirmation, authentication of government-issued identification paperwork and comparability with a stay digital camera examine.
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 via the platform.
Castle eWill stated scanning the code allows 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 overview their Wills each 12 months and following important life occasions that would have an effect on their property plans.
Such occasions embrace marriage, the delivery of a kid and the acquisition of property.
Addressing considerations that digital Will-making companies might diminish the function of authorized practitioners, Castle eWill maintained that its platform was meant to broaden, somewhat than undermine, alternatives for attorneys.
The firm argued that making property planning extra accessible might deliver extra Nigerians who had by no means consulted attorneys about Wills or Trusts into the method, thereby creating extra demand for skilled authorized companies.
The firm additionally expressed its intention to collaborate with attorneys 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 somewhat than eradicated the necessity for banks and banking professionals.
It maintained {that a} comparable strategy might apply to authorized companies, with expertise serving to extra folks take step one in the direction of succession planning whereas attorneys present the experience required to handle complicated authorized points.
According to the corporate, skilled authorized recommendation stays notably essential in estates involving difficult household constructions, company property, collectively owned properties, customary and Islamic regulation, international property, taxation, guardianship, enterprise succession and competing claims amongst beneficiaries.
The firm maintained that expertise might widen entry to property planning, whereas skilled authorized judgment remained important to making certain that people and households acquired applicable recommendation and that their needs had been correctly documented and carried out.
