Conveyancing risks
Conveyancing involves a range of risks that law firms must carefully navigate to protect themselves and their clients. This is the same for most areas of law but property lawyers deal with ‘high-value financial transactions’ which can be used for money laundering, property theft, identity fraud and cyber crime.
The Perfect Solution
The process of verifying clients, conducting background checks, obtaining necessary documents, and ordering searches can be time-consuming and prone to risk and compliance issues. However, with the advent of advanced technology, law firms can now easily configure a perfect onboarding solution that promises to enhance the way they handle tasks.
In this article, we will explore the key components of what makes a perfect client onboarding solution and how it can help conveyancing law firms streamline their operations, enhance compliance, and deliver an exceptional onboarding experience to clients.
What is ‘the perfect client onboarding solution’?
The perfect solution should address the needs and go beyond being just a product by becoming a partner that understands the challenges faced by the law firm. It should help in delivering the best possible service to clients and tools to their staff. This solution should be designed to simplify and automate these tasks, saving time, enhancing compliance and mitigating risk.
Here are some of the key things a top client onboarding solution should have.
Offer a one-stop solution
From verifying client identification to conducting thorough background checks and processing bank statements, a solution that can offer an all-in-one workflow and simplifies the entire process is what conveyancing firms should look for. This will save them time and energy in logging in and out of different pieces of technologies that have no synergy.
A digital identity verification
A core aspect and standout feature of the best client onboarding solution for conveyancing law firms is robust digital identity verification. This feature utilises advanced biometric technology and offers a global reach, enabling seamless verification for clients from over 200 countries. By cross-referencing identity documents with biometric data, such as facial recognition, this multi-layered approach enhances security and prevents fraud. It significantly reduces the risk of impersonation or manipulation of identity documents, safeguarding against financial losses and reputational damage.
Additionally, digital identity verification helps prevent fra transactions by uniquely verifying each client’s identity. This feature ensures that conveyancing law firms process transactions from genuine individuals, minimising the risk of inadvertently handling duplicate or fraudulent transactions.
The global reach of this technology within the onboarding process allows for firms to target clients from different countries, eliminating the need for manual document checks and enabling secure cross-border transactions.
By incorporating robust digital identity verification, conveyancing law firms can enhance security, prevent fraud, streamline transactions, and confidently onboard clients from around the world, ultimately improving their operational efficiency and client satisfaction.
Integration and Configuration
Another the key aspect of a good client onboarding solution for conveyancing law firms is its integration with other systems. For conveyancing law firms this integration begins at the estate agent level with AML checks and administering quotes. The journey of a client starts here, and so a onboarding solution needs to ensure a joined-up solution from the very beginning. This integration is appealing as it eliminates the need for separate systems and provides a streamlined experience.
Estate agents, a main supplier of property work for conveyancing would also love a solution that meets these needs because it’s also built for their needs, allowing them to generate quotes easily, and then pass them onto the law firm to accept through one platform. As a client moves from estate agency into the legal side, it becomes more onboarding-oriented because estate agents usually perform basic KYC and not enhanced AML verification. Instead, they simply send the instruction to the conveyancing law firm.
Therefore in terms of integration and configuration, the perfect onboarding solution should seamlessly link with existing systems and processes. It can be customised to incorporate branding elements, colours, logos and branding will ensure a consistent and professional image throughout the onboarding process. By connecting with case management systems and search providers, this solution creates a unified ecosystem that maximises efficiency and eliminates the need for manual data entry or switching between different platforms.
Client-Facing Applications
To enhance the onboarding experience, a great onboarding solution offers multiple client-facing applications that cater for all types of clients. These applications provide clients with a user-friendly interface where they can complete tasks such as ID verification, address verifications, electronically signing contracts, making payments, providing source of funds information, and uploading required documents. These applications should be available utilising a dedicated app, web portal and offer language variations that clients can use to directly communicate with the law firm, making the process more transparent and efficient.
Automated Processes and Reporting
A client onboarding solution for conveyancing law firms should be able to help monitor key client data and automate conflict checks, generate reports, and streamline administrative tasks. This automation reduces the risk of errors, saves time, and ensures compliance with regulatory requirements.
Additionally, the solution should provide comprehensive reporting capabilities, allowing firms to track progress, measure performance, and gain valuable insights for continuous improvement.
Benefits for Conveyancing Law Firms
Enhanced Compliance
Compliance is a critical aspect of client onboarding in the legal industry. The perfect onboarding solution enables law firms to meet regulatory obligations effectively. By automating identity verification, conducting thorough background checks, and maintaining accurate records, firms can ensure compliance with anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) regulations, mitigating the risk of potential penalties.
Efficiency and Time Savings
By consolidating multiple tasks into a single platform, the perfect onboarding solution significantly improves efficiency. Law firms can save time by eliminating manual processes, reducing paperwork, and minimising the need for multiple software applications. This newfound efficiency allows firms to handle a higher volume of clients, enhance productivity, and allocate resources more effectively.
Exceptional Client Experience
The perfect onboarding solution prioritises the client experience. With client-facing applications, intuitive interfaces, and transparent communication channels, law firms can provide a seamless and user-friendly experience for their clients. Clients can conveniently access and complete necessary tasks, stay informed about the progress of their cases, and have confidence in the security and professionalism of the onboarding process.
The perfect onboarding solution represents a significant advancement in client onboarding for conveyancing law firms. By incorporating identity verification, biometrics, integration capabilities, client-facing applications, and automation, this solution streamlines the onboarding process, enhances compliance, and delivers an exceptional client experience. Conveyancing law firms that embrace this technology can optimise their operations, save time, and provide a secure and efficient onboarding process for their clients. With the perfect onboarding solution, the future of client onboarding in the legal industry is poised for transformation.
How can Verify 365 help deliver the best client onboarding for your firm?
In the realm of client onboarding for conveyancing law firms, Verify 365 emerges as the undisputed leader, offering an unparalleled range of features and services to tackle the challenges faced by legal professionals. With a strong focus on compliance and advanced technology, Verify 365 ensures a seamless onboarding process while mitigating risks and enhancing efficiency.
Regulatory compliance
Compliance is a critical aspect of client onboarding, particularly in conveyancing where regulatory requirements are stringent. Verify 365 stands out by complying with HM Land Registry’s Digital ID Standard, a set of requirements based on the government’s Digital ID Good Practice Guide GPG45. By adhering to this standard, Verify 365 facilitates biometric and cryptographic checks, verifying the identity of individuals involved in registrable transactions. This compliance provides conveyancers with a “Safe Harbour” status, protecting them from potential recourse claims related to inadequate identity checks.
Comprehensive and configurable
Verify 365 goes beyond compliance to offer a comprehensive suite of services that simplifies the onboarding process for conveyancing law firms. Acting as a one-stop solution, it replaces the need for multiple suppliers by providing a unified dashboard. This beautifully designed dashboard integrates essential functionalities such as ID/AML checks, source of funds checks, sanction checks, searches, e-signatures, company checks, and more. With Verify 365, conveyancing law firms can efficiently manage all aspects of the onboarding process in a single platform, saving time and effort.
Proprietary technology
As a UK-developed technology company, Verify 365 takes pride in owning its technology. Unlike many competitors who license and resell technology from third-party providers, Verify 365’s proprietary technology ensures reliability, flexibility, and continuous innovation. This ownership guarantees that conveyancing law firms receive unparalleled configuration options and a level of quality and compliance that surpasses industry standards.
Verify 365 is not only a technological solution but a product of collaboration between legal professionals and industry experts. Developed with the Solicitors Regulation Authority and HM Land Registry Verify 365 is specifically designed by lawyers for lawyers. This unique collaboration ensures that the platform meets the specific needs of conveyancing law firms, aligns with regulatory requirements, and incorporates industry best practices.
The key features of Verify 365 are designed to deliver an exceptional client onboarding experience.
With its advanced DynamicID® Biometric/NFC ID Verification Check, Verify 365 utilises AI technology and machine learning to perform the most advanced biometric checks covering over 200+ countries and more than 10,000 ID documents. The platform also offers global PEPs & Sanctions Checks, Address Verification Checks, Source of Funds Open Banking Statements with Analytics, Additional Source of Funds/Proof of Ownership checks, AML Lite Verifications (Dashboard Checks), KYB Company Checks, eSignatures, ePayments, eForms, Property Searches, Workflows and Integrations, and an Arch.Law “branded” app and web portal.
By incorporating these cutting-edge features, Verify 365 enables conveyancing law firms to optimise their operations and achieve unparalleled efficiency. The platform ensures full compliance with AML regulations and offers comprehensive risk and compliance solutions tailored to the needs of legal professionals. With a track record of working with law firms in the UK, Australia, Canada, and the Middle East, Verify 365 has established itself as the leading choice for client onboarding in the conveyancing industry.
To top it off, Verify 365 offers highly competitive pricing. As the owner of its technology, the platform eliminates the need for third-party licensing costs, resulting in cost savings for conveyancing law firms. With no platform fee or technology fee, law firms only pay for the services they use, making Verify 365 a cost-effective solution that aligns with their budgetary requirements.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Verify 365 stands as the pinnacle of client onboarding solutions for conveyancing law firms. With its compliance with HM Land Registry’s Digital ID Standard, proprietary technology, extensive feature set, collaborative approach, and competitive pricing, Verify 365 empowers conveyancing law firms to revolutionise their onboarding processes. By embracing Verify 365, firms can enhance compliance, streamline operations, and deliver an exceptional client experience, cementing their position as industry leaders in the ever-evolving landscape of conveyancing.
