SFE Insight | Enhancing the Bereavement Process, by Nick Cousins

A third of finance professionals would not be satisfied with the level of service their company provides when it comes to bereavement – would you?

Recent findings from the 2022 Bereavement Index report, conducted by Exizent, have shown that financial services could – and should – be doing more to support bereaved individuals.

Death is a difficult time, and the processes that come with settling a loved one’s estate don’t make it any easier. From registering their death, to organising their funeral, to settling their estate, this period is often stressful and confusing for all those going through it – and has the potential to impact us in a variety of negative ways.

55% of individuals that go through bereavement now suffer mental health issues as a result of the processes that come with it. This figure is up 15% from last year. 23% of individuals now find the processes involved in bereavement ‘extremely’ stressful – a number that has also risen from just 5%. What’s more, amidst the current financial crisis already putting strain on society, it seems the costs of estate administration aren’t helping, and are leaving even more people suffering than ever, with 34% now struggling to make ends meet as a result.

All of these figures, Exizent’s report has found, are impacted by the length of the bereavement process, the practices being used by professionals working in the sector, and the expectations being put on the notifier by professionals while they are grieving.

But what can financial services do to help – and why should they?

Financial services institutions have been put under the spotlight by legal services firms for delaying the bereavement process. In fact, in Exizent’s surveyed law firms’ top five main causes of delay within the bereavement process, institutions accounted for three: awaiting responses from institutions, institutions being slow to respond to requests, and institutions being unable to provide all the information the legal service needs to progress the process forward. Upon analysis, the research implies that many finance professionals might agree as they too see areas of the process which need enhancing, with 93% admitting they want to focus on boosting their customer’s bereavement journey in the next 12 months.

But it seems it’s not all bad.

Ian Bond, Director of Thursfields Solicitor’s, has discussed his contact with financial institutions when dealing with bereavement cases in a recent interview: ‘There are banks and building societies doing really well, but there are also those that haven’t put technology in place and don’t use any death notification services to help speed up the [bereavement] process, which means as a practitioner needing information you have to contact the centre, produce their forms and wait for a response often via post.’

Clearly some see the benefits of increasing the focus on their customer’s bereavement journeys and putting technology in place to simplify what’s involved, but for others the process remains manual and time-consuming, which only increases the length of time it takes to bring a bereavement case to its resolution – to the dismay of legal services professionals and more importantly, notifiers of a death.

So how can those financial institutions which haven’t prioritised putting solutions in place make the changes needed to make the process more efficient?

Realising the business benefit

While many financial services might not see this as a priority, it’s important to understand the benefits the financial institutions can reap from giving the process added focus.

Bereavement is a crucial time in all of our lives where empathy and compassion go a long way. So, while you might be losing an account through the death of a customer, you also have much to gain. By making a notifier’s bereavement journey as simple and stress-free as possible, you can enhance your business’s reputation through the creation of brand advocates. In addition, from a dormant account often comes inter-generational wealth transfer which needs to be stored with one financial service institution or another. Would you trust your money with an institution who, in a grieving state, did the least possible to help you through their area of estate administration, or one who did the best they could?

By helping individuals after the loss of a loved one by treating them with empathy and putting the right processes in place that will help speed up estate administration for them, you not only put less stress on the notifier and create brand advocates for your business, you also make the manual processes involved a lot less laborious on your staff too, meaning more job satisfaction and productivity which will only improve your business results and turnover rates in future.

Enhancing bereavement processes in financial services – where technology solutions can help

The Bereavement Index research shows that the main priorities for improving financial services bereavement journeys moving forwards are to reduce overall case resolution times, uphold and enhance business reputation, reduce process task times and finally, improve customer communications.

Dedicated bereavement software is helping these institutions combat all of these issues, and more.

74% of financial services institutions still rely heavily on manual processes for dealing with bereavement tasks that range from requesting information (i.e. the death certificate), to sending verification documents by post, and verifying the identity of the notifier. These processes can add hours, days and even weeks to a case where dedicated software can do all of these tasks and more in an instant, through the use of digital data verification and automated emails, all completed online - reducing employee workload and speeding up wait time for legal services and notifiers.

What’s more, this software keeps all of your information in one place – in the cloud – to keep teams on top of any updates that come in, ensure easy collaboration between teams, and keep any information you have safe and secure from cyberthreat.

And this software doesn’t have to come at a cost either.

Exizent software has been built as a scalable SaaS solution (which means no capax) that scales to your business needs. To find out how we can support the bereavement processes in your organisation, speak to one of our professionals today.

Learn more of the trends uncovered in Exizent’s Market Report, why it’s becoming increasingly imperative for financial service organisations to look at their processes, and the benefits companies like yours could reap by doing so.