Equiniti, the specialist administrator receiving over 50% of death notifications in the UK each year is delighted to announce its partnership with Certainty the National Will Register.
This strategic relationship will enable Equiniti’s bereavement services team, to offer all of its customers’ access to the Certainty Will Search and the National Will Register, enabling the customer to locate the last known Will of the recently deceased and give peace of mind.
A Certainty Will Search checks over seven million Wills in the registration system and can search for those Wills that have not been registered by searching solicitors and Will Writers across the country. In addition, a notification is placed on the Certainty Missing Will Notice Board which is accessed daily by 5,500 solicitors who are members of the National Will Register which will give Equiniti’s customers the best possible chance of recovering Wills.
Locating Wills is an important step following a bereavement, as identifying whether a Will exists and is in its most current version can avoid issues arising later in the process of distributing an estate during probate. The Law Society recommends using Certainty the National Will Register to check for Wills and by completing a Will search, both the Executor and the Administrator can prevent any risk of breach of duty that may occur.
Stuart Simpson, Head of Equiniti Benefactor, the bereavement services team at Equiniti, commented:
“We are delighted to partner with Certainty the National Will Register. Certainty Will Search is an essential service to anybody distributing an estate, this makes them a natural fit for our business, and this arrangement will be hugely complementary to the bereavement services that we are able to offer to our customers.
“The identification of Wills and gaining the most up-to-date version can be an exhausting and an emotional experience following a bereavement. Our partnership with Certainty the National Will Register will simplify this process for our customers by providing the most thorough search possible and, in tandem with Equiniti Benefactor’s customer service and administrative capabilities, give all customers peace of mind and protection.”
Rob Brown, Director at Certainty the National Will Register, added: “Equiniti’s platform and reach means this partnership will enable more people than ever to gain the assurance born from knowing they have access to all the correct documents at what is a very difficult time. Like Equiniti, our specially trained staff have significant experience dealing with bereavement and the vast administrative challenges that family members, friends, administrators, executors and professional executors all face. At least 1 in every 10 Certainty Will Searches results in either a Will that was previously thought not to exist being discovered or a Will being found that would supersede the current Will being used to distribute a client’s estate. A Certainty Will Search takes seconds to do and the low cost of the search can be reclaimed from the estate”.
This additional service can be accessed through Equiniti’s Customer Service Centre on 0371 384 2793 or online through Shareview here.
