James McKenzie (Wills) Ltd is a specialist Will writing company, focusing primarily on providing Wills and related products to employees of large multinational companies. James McKenzie have been providing Will writing services since 2004 and have been in the employee benefit market since 2007.
James McKenzie adopted BePrepared so they could provide safe custody for their clients digital assets, as well as continual access for clients to copies of their legal matters. The additional sales and word of mouth was just a bonus!
Meeting Andrew Buchan, Managing Director of James McKenzie
I'm the director of James McKenzie, and we specialise in (and solely do) wills, lasting powers of attorney and trusts.
I've been at James McKenzie for 14 years now. I started when it was just my co-director and founder, and since that time we've grown year-on-year and we're up to 30-40 staff now.
Before you used BePrepared, what did you do with digital assets and your clients files?
We knew it was a really big issue, but before BePrepared, we were just leaving it in their court to ultimately sort out and deal with.
Well it sounds a bit cliche, but before BePrepared came on our radar, we didn't do much at all. We knew it was a really big issue, we were writing wills, and you can say put it on paper with the will and keep it safe and secure. But ultimately, there isn't this one place that is secure or easily accessible for people. So we were just leaving it in their court ultimately to sort out and deal with.
What made you want to investigate handling this further?
Whenever I spoke to a client after a conversation that you and I had — all routes tended to lead back into: we need this solution.
Probably a little bit of inevitability. There needed to be a solution out there that allowed our clients to have their stuff easily accessible, updatable, and that met all the security requirements we felt were necessary for keeping this sort of stuff safe. We write a lot of wills for corporate clients, and the requirements of us as the service provider for them means that we have to be hotter than hot on how we operate and where the data is stored.
So we never had the ability to have that solution and mention to clients that this is a place where you can keep your stuff.
And I hope I don't speak out of line here, but I know you and I had numerous conversations over a prolonged period of time, but whenever I spoke to a client after a conversation that you and I had — all routes tended to lead back into: we need this solution.
How did you find the implementation process?
I wish I'd gone with this sooner because it was such an easy process to implement it and onboard... your team was phenomenal.
When we decided to pull the trigger and to go with it, it was so smooth—yourself and your team were just phenomenal in regards to helping us bring it to life.
You told us how to make it work based on all the experience you had with your vast number of people that have implemented it. You said this is what you can do, these are your options, we'll help you do this bit. We've got some really good material to help you put in there. And actually, I wish I'd gone with this sooner because it was such an easy process to implement it and onboard. Benefit of hindsight shall we say.
What are the benefits you've received from BePrepared?
When your team says "my goodness, I need this" ... you know they are absolutely behind it.
I think one of the benefits for me was just to see the team reaction that we had. You're looking to implement it for a client as a solution that you believe is the right thing, and you are without any doubt fully behind it. And it's great saying and believing in it. But when your team actually sees something first hand and say, "my goodness, I need this." When they feel it— and they're going out speaking to their clients about it— you know that they are absolutely behind it. So for me that was a major benefit.
So my sole purpose for doing this was to have a solution where a client could store the stuff not otherwise stored safely. That was the key driver as I said. Our proposition is very service driven, not sales driven. Sales are nice additions for us. I didn't really expect to see the sales elements be successful as well, but I think we're doing somewhere in the region of about 150 clients per month coming on board, and we're already starting to see clients come back asking to review their wills, which I wasn't doing this for, but it's great to see that in itself it generates more opportunities for us.
And also, it's nice to see that when we're doing this, we're seeing clients come back with positive feedback about us. And actually, that means we're suddenly more fresh in their mind—and we even see some clients refer us on for the purpose of this digital safe— we've spoken with their friends and family, and we've ended up writing their will.
What feedback from clients have you received?
We've had long standing clients coming back saying "Why didn't you have this sooner?"
As director, I tend to predominately just deal with the complaints and serious stuff, so I don't see as much of the feedback when it comes in. But I've had two or three people that have actually reached out and said "I've been a client with you for a long time and why haven't you had this sooner?". It's nice when you have some long standing clients come back and say to you "I wish we had this a while ago, and this is really useful.
What was really, really interesting for me as well was just seeing some of the, the more unusual ways in which the clients would look to implement it.
We had one client who was, was an author, for example, and they said, well, I've got some manuscripts. This would be a perfect place for me to hold that information And just it opens your mind as to how how great this can be used for not just the intended purpose but for all other stuff they have and They didn't have a solution for this previously.
What would you say to firms considering BePrepared?
For me knowing what I know now there was never going to be any hassle—so anytime would be there right time. Do it.
I would probably say look— if you're confident in what it can deliver, and you are confident with the security elements, just go with it, because the team at BePrepared really do take care of it. They work out the way to make it work for you, and that's the thing. They take the difficult element of implementation out and sort it for you. If you like what they can do and you're happy with how it works, do it.
Anything new is unfamiliar and is effort, and it always comes down to "is this the right time to do it". With anything in life, there never tends to be a right time, it's only the right time if there's no hassle in doing it. For me knowing what I know now there was never going to be any hassle—so anytime would be there right time.
