Probate
Tesco Law is Dead! by Gregory van Dyk Watson, Managing Director of Isokon Limited
Fear of Tesco Law Many lawyers had believed that they would be at risk of losing the bulk of their probate business to a national company, who might invade their marketplace with huge capital investment and a massive media campaign. They referred to this imaginary phenomenon as Tesco Law. The evidence is that this has not manifested itself.
Your reputation is fundamental The competitor is not Tesco Law, nor the online advert offering a cut price service, nor the teenage son who believes he can do the work just as competently at zero cost. Your reputation is fundamental to securing the work, without which your Will Bank can quickly become a wasted resource.
Profitability requires more than knowledge of the law
Requirement is for a probate accounting system
Many law firms regard probate work as a legal matter, as opposed to a process. Clearly an overriding knowledge of the law is fundamental to estate administration, but it is insufficient to ensure the profitability of your probate department.
For the process to be effective, it is axiomatic that a probate accounting system is required to handle the financial details of an estate, where data is entered once only.
Most of us trust the law firm holding dad’s will
Probate/Estate Administration is primarily a process
The facts are that Tesco Law was a chimera. It was never a serious contender for probate work. Most of us will still call our known and trusted law firm when we experience a death in the family. It is after all where Dad’s, Mum’s or Grandad’s will has been safeguarded over the years.
The basics are relatively straightforward prove the will, identify and value the assets and liabilities, assess the tax, collect the money and pay the beneficiaries. Of course, this is a gross oversimplification. But the fact remains that probate work is primarily a process.
The goal is to achieve a 70% Gross Profit Margin
Accounting and Case Management defeat Tesco Law
The real challenge to the law firm is the law firm itself - to deliver a quality service while keeping costs down. On the surface these appear to be divergent objectives. The goal of the modern efficient law firm should be to achieve a Gross Profit Margin (GPM) of 50% at the very least. And ideally closer to 70%. This is being achieved by a number of probate departments.
Competent software consists of an all embracing accounting engine designed to cope with the full variety of assets and liabilities (other than in the most basic estates) together with an integrated case management system with workflows, a calendar of reminder tasks, and a mailmerge facility to extract the data from the accounting database. The two need to work hand in hand with each other. One without the other will not succeed.
Profitability via the efficient use of technology The only way to reach these levels of profitability is through efficient use of technology. Almost all articles about probate estate administration deal with the legal issues, with no regard to the actual organisation of the work - the very area in which your profit or loss is determined.
Consequently estate accounts and IHT forms can be produced with the proverbial click of a mouse. Any firm that is not properly organised around well developed competent software is in competition with itself.
Devolving the work equals profitability This technology will enable you to devolve much of the routine work to the lesser qualified members of the team paralegals and secretaries. Properly trained and supervised, they will be able to input financial data and generate letters and documents. Alternatively, the work can be done just as easily by fee earners without the need for support staff.
It is a tried and tested business model This business model is proven, and it works. And the cost savings are significant. The time saved will enable the more qualified members of the private client team to devote more time to supervision and client care. n
For further information please contact: Gregory van Dyk Watson, Managing Director of Isokon Limited. Email: gregory@isokon.com or call 020 7482 6555. Alternatively visit www.isokon.com Isokon was founded by Gregory van Dyk Watson in 1999. The company has invested 44,000 man hours in development of the product over the last 17 years. Isokon is currently the leading supplier of software for Probate and Private Client work. It is used by 40% of law firms who do private client work. Isokon is used by more than 2,000 individual users for the most complex estates, as well as basic estates. Isokon is based on an accounting database engine with an integrated Isokon case management component.
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