10098774Probate-TreeClosedCollaborative R&DInnovate UKProbate-Tree is a direct to consumer legal services platform. A disruptive business model that transforms the way Legal Services are delivered in the UK. At the heart of this project is moving the control of Probate cases from the Lawyer to Client. This operating model has never been done before. High Street Solicitors deliver their legal expertise, whilst conducting high volumes of administrative work. The net result is that Probate becomes an expensive process for the consumer. Probate-Tree gives the legal consumer the tools in the form of their own case management platform. Running their own case, the software guides them through the process, from the point of death to estate distribution, generating correspondence, accounts and automating tasks. Probate-Tree's logic identifies the point at which Lawyers are "needed", such as for Court applications, and focuses their input through our Lawyer-led operations team at those key points. This hybrid business model is Client-Driven and Lawyer-Supervised. Empowering the Client to manage their own files reduces the administrative burden on the Lawyer, thereby increasing productivity and reducing overheads. Probate, as a legal process, is necessary for in excess of 250,000 individuals every year; 100,000+ of them (in England & Wales) do so without a Lawyer, and without any case management tools. Unguided consumers educate themselves on the Probate process whilst navigating their way through it. The process, in a large part, is the obtaining and collation of multiple sources of financial data. To efficiently manage this, the unaided consumer has to create files and spreadsheets of correspondence and financial data for onward reporting to the Court or HMRC. Our platform, supported by this project, will support and simplify the Probate experience for emotionally vulnerable users. Probate-Tree is an anytime-anywhere legal services platform that empowers Clients to run their own case. The previously unaided consumer can manage all of the correspondence and data received on a single platform from the comfort of their own home or work. They no longer need to attend city centre institutions, or generate letters, or manage incoming correspondence because Probate-Tree's automated platform does it for them. This automation is supported by a Lawyer-Led operations team that will step in, a "lawyer in the loop", when needed and be on hand to answer questions the consumer may have. The consumer has control of their own case, but has the experience and expertise of Probate-Tree's Legal Team behind them.