International law firm Withers has invested in digital estate planning platform Zenplans.
As part of the deal, Withers will partner with the technology company to help clients and their families securely manage their assets and affairs.
Withers will initially offer Zenplans to clients in the UK and will roll it out in other markets in due course. The Withers team working on the partnership arrangement included partners Philip Munro, James Shaw and Kenneth Mullen, with associate Jing Wei Luo.
Zenplans was launched in 2021 to enable individuals and their advisers to hold all essential estate planning information and documentation, including wills, financial information and details of digital assets, in a cloud-based platform.
Once an account is set up, it can be shared with family members, advisers and executors so that everyone has access to the system at the appropriate time. Data is end-to-end encrypted.
Changing nature of estate planning
Jay Dinwoodie, chief executive of Withers’ private client and tax team, said: “The digitisation of information and the development of digital assets has changed the nature of estate planning. As the world’s premier law firm for estate and wealth planning, we prioritize offering our clients the best new digital services, while ensuring that their information is totally secure.
“We are really impressed by how Zenplans provides that solution and are so convinced of the value of the product that we have backed it in its most recent funding round and look forward to making it available to our clients.”
Stephen Moses, managing director and founder of Zenplans, added: “Zenplans makes planning for the future simple by making details of your assets and your wishes available to your successors and representatives. The product has seen very enthusiastic take-up and we’re delighted that a firm of Withers’ stature is offering the service to clients and has gone one step beyond that by investing in our growth as we expand the scale of our business.”
The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
