Asset Checker is the UK’s first online searchable database providing access for solicitors and probate professional to private shareholdings covering 8 out of 10 UK listed company registers. Asset Checker also notifies registrars about a death, a key element in helping to prevent fraud on a deceased estate. More...

A new service which provides probate professionals with the facility to trace and value the shareholdings of deceased estates online has been launched this week.

Asset Checker enables probate professionals to provide their clients with a more effective and efficient service. The website (www.assetchecker.co.uk) allows authorised professionals to directly search the majority of UK listed companies’ share registers.

The fully secure website is a unique service and a first for the UK; providing authorised users with access to around 80% of UK listed companies all in one place, currently representing 15 million shareholdings or 3000 companies.  Ascertaining the shareholdings of a deceased can be a particularly time-consuming and error prone process when winding up an estate. It relies upon, to a large extent, the solicitor or executor having knowledge of companies in which the deceased held shares. In cases where little or no documentation exists, or is out of date, shareholdings may be missed unless numerous, separate enquiries are undertaken.

The range of search options offered by Asset Checker are designed to reduce the risk of non-identification of assets More...

Scottish firm Blackadders has implemented the Executry/Probate function within its Private Client department by implementing a FloSuite IT solution which automates and manages its day-to-day operations.

Since going live with the FloSuite Executry Solution the firm’s own ROI study has recorded a range of clear business benefits, including efficiency gains of, on average, around 50% in the processing of Executries.

The solution, which governs procedures using best-practice business rules, has also helped generate improvements to the ratio of fee earners to support staff, and enabled reallocation of resources from other departmental areas, cutting operating costs.

Other business benefits include:

· Ability to easily manage legal and regulatory compliance requirements

· Access to a full audit trail for due diligence

· Improved services to clients due to reduced cycle times and increased transparency

· Greater management control and visibility of processes and case loads

· Ability to easily alter and extend the solution using a Microsoft Visio-based development environment – therefore not tied to fixed functions

· Elimination of data input errors and duplicated entries/effort across multiple systems

 

Blackadders Partner and Head of Private Client Donald Gordon said:

“In association with FloSuite, the Private Client partners, Director of Executry Services, our Executry specialists and our IT team, we have recently developed a complete and flexible case management system for Executry administration. This system has already proved its worth in the efficient running of individual cases, and the management of the Executry section as a whole – and this is in addition to a quicker throughput of fees for the work that we do.”

The new FloSuite solution manages the complete Executry/Probate process (testate and intestate) after matter creation, including the key milestones of Investigation, Exhibition, Realisation and Finalisation, ensuring a standardised process is followed for each case. It automatically produces relevant forms and documents that are pre-populated with the correct information, manages/enforces deadlines, produces management reports and integrates with the firm’s practice management solution.

The FloSuite Executry/Probate solution is now being used to manage all Executry processes across the firm. Such is the success of the initiative that the project to deploy the FloSuite solution formed the basis of Blackadders’ recent submission for the prestigious 2009 Legal Awards. Blackadders has been shortlisted for a place in the final, the winner of which will be announced at an awards ceremony in Edinburgh on 27 March.

Blackadders is one of Scotland’s leading law firms and provides a range of legal services to business and private individuals from its three offices in Dundee, and additional locations in Forfar and Arbroath.

FloSuite Ltd. is specialised in providing Business Process and Case Management solutions to the global professional services sector, with customers in the UK, Europe, US and Australia.