AA Law: part of diversification strategy
The AA – which research found recently to be the UK’s most trusted brand – has launched a conveyancing service in its first move since receiving an alternative business structure (ABS) licence in late 2013.
AA Home Conveyancing is provided by a panel of solicitors’ and licensed conveyancer firms, managed by Lifetime Legal.
The fee quoted for the purchase of a £200,000 property is £500 + VAT. It includes ‘mover protection’ which may cover costs if the deal falls through, depending on the circumstances, of up to £720 for a sale and £1,850 for a purchase
Mark Huggins, managing director of AA Ventures, of which AA Law is part, said that “many people are unsure where to go for conveyancing and selecting a suitable law firm can be daunting”.
He added: “This is a logical development of the AA’s expanding range of home and legal services and a perfect fit with the AA’s ‘most trusted brand’ status.
“It’s launched at a time when the home sales and prices are beginning to pick up, with 19% more homes changing hands than a year ago.”
The AA already offers home emergency cover, as well as home insurance, which gives policyholders access to a range of online legal documents where bundled up with legal expenses insurance. AA Law also provides a wills service.
AA Law went live in December 2013 as a joint venture ABS with Lyons Davidson.
AA Ventures was launched last week, bringing together the non-roadside parts of the business “as the company targets diversification and growth”, it said in a statement.
“AA Ventures will act as a key growth engine for the company, incorporating and having full responsibility for all new and unique businesses within the AA and will also run and manage any mergers and acquisition activity.”
Chris Jansen, AA chief executive, said: “By bringing together this ‘treasure trove’ of non-roadside businesses as part of AA Ventures, we are taking a more holistic approach to growth opportunities.
“We see significant scope to further capitalise on the strength of the brand to build a business of significant scale, driving innovation and ensuring a level of outstanding service that our members and customers have rightly come to expect.”
Yesterday, the AA floated on the stock exchange.
Meanwhile, myhomemove – which owns Premier Property Lawyers, the UK’s first ABS – has named Bridget Blow, a former non-executive director of the Bank of England, as its new chair. As CEO of ITNET Plc, she grew the business from revenues of £40m to £200m of revenue and in 1998 achieved a full listing of the business on the London Stock Exchange.
Doug Crawford, CEO of myhomemove, said: “Bridget’s expertise in finance, technology and outsourcing will be invaluable as we move into the next phase of our development. We’re incredibly pleased that she has accepted the position of chair, and look forward working together to realise myhomemove’s ambition of trebling our transactional volumes by 2016.”
The company plans to reach 50,000 mover completions by the end of 2014, and 100,000 completions a year by 2016.
Do not be fooled into thinking that this is the AA being derailed into low-profit law. Moving home is one of those life stages off which a lot of other work may well hang (income planning, wealth mgmt, wills, home insurance, energy supply etc etc ) and the AA will assiduously mine the data and use it to create income for themselves or refer it out.
It is all about meeting people and forming relationships with them at a life stage that allows maximum income generation.
They will use technology to make the client feel empowered and in control which will counteract the lack of personal touch.
They will use technology assiduously to keep the relationship warm.
The law firms losing out as a result will never even know they have lost the work.
But of course, law firms can use exactly the same techniques and the tech to support them exists, is easy to implement and low cost…
Just another (excellent) route to market for them.
Why are they Britain’s most trusted brand? Because they are the best marketed brand and relentlessly customer-focussed. there’s a lesson in there for us all.