•Says digital estate planning will expand opportunities for lawyers

Wale Igbintade

A Nigerian technology company, Castle eWill and Trust Limited, has launched a digital estate-planning platform designed to simplify Will preparation, encourage succession planning and make estate-planning services more accessible to Nigerians.

The platform enables adults to prepare, update, securely store and manage their Wills and Trusts online, with the aim of helping individuals protect their families, preserve their assets and ensure that their wishes are respected after death.

The Chief Executive Officer of the company, Mr Olumide Olaiya, said the initiative was founded on the belief that everyone should have the opportunity to plan for the future of their loved ones, regardless of their financial circumstances or location.

According to him, the company hopes to become Africa’s most trusted digital platform for estate planning, Will preparation, Trust administration and probate support.

Olaiya said many Nigerians postponed preparing Wills because they considered the process uncomfortable, complicated or relevant only to wealthy individuals.

He explained that Castle eWill was seeking to change the perception by providing an accessible starting point for estate planning while encouraging users to obtain appropriate professional legal advice.

The platform’s Will preparation process comprises five stages, beginning with the provision of personal information, followed by details of executors, trustees, beneficiaries and assets.

Users are subsequently required to provide particulars of their gifts and wishes, supply information about witnesses, and review and confirm the document before printing it and submitting it to the relevant High Court Probate Registry.

Olaiya said the process was designed to make Will preparation more straightforward while incorporating safeguards to protect users’ information and support the authentication of their documents.

On data protection, the company said files were encrypted before being written to disk, while attempts to access them were logged.

The platform also incorporates identity-verification measures, including email confirmation, authentication of government-issued identification documents and comparison with a live camera check.

According to the company, these measures are intended to establish that the individual making a Will is the person identified in the document.

Another feature is a QR seal attached to every Will generated through the platform.

Castle eWill said scanning the code enables recipients to verify the document’s identity, version and date of issuance, helping institutions, including banks and registries, determine whether a copy is genuine and current.

The platform also sends reminders encouraging subscribers to review their Wills every 12 months and following significant life events that could affect their estate plans.

Such events include marriage, the birth of a child and the acquisition of property.

Addressing concerns that digital Will-making services could diminish the role of legal practitioners, Castle eWill maintained that its platform was intended to expand, rather than undermine, opportunities for lawyers.

The company argued that making estate planning more accessible could bring more Nigerians who had never consulted lawyers about Wills or Trusts into the process, thereby creating additional demand for professional legal services.

The company also expressed its intention to collaborate with lawyers across Nigeria to provide these services.

Drawing a comparison with developments in the banking industry, Castle eWill said the introduction of internet banking and mobile applications had expanded access to banking services rather than eliminated the need for banks and banking professionals.

It maintained that a similar approach could apply to legal services, with technology helping more people take the first step towards succession planning while lawyers provide the expertise required to address complex legal issues.

According to the company, professional legal advice remains particularly important in estates involving complicated family structures, corporate assets, jointly owned properties, customary and Islamic law, foreign assets, taxation, guardianship, business succession and competing claims among beneficiaries.

The company maintained that technology could widen access to estate planning, while professional legal judgment remained essential to ensuring that individuals and families received appropriate advice and that their wishes were properly documented and implemented.