Protecting against fraud and ensuring your clients are who they say they are can be challenging. But with all solicitors required to carry out proper identity checks, and the Safe Harbour Standard for conveyancers setting a new benchmark for the profession, failing to verify isn’t an option.
Nevertheless, authentication takes time, and the process can be clunky. So, how can firms remain compliant, create a better digital workflow for converting new clients, and make an excellent first impression?
It just takes three simple steps.
Receiving and accepting quotations
One of the first things clients want to establish is how much legal services cost. As such, it makes sense to build the quotation phase into the onboarding process. The client should also be able to review and accept the quote online.
Adherence to the Price and Service Transparency rules means that clarity is not only essential, it is mandatory. A firm’s ability to send clear and easy to understand quotes with fee breakdowns and where applicable VAT costs.
By building the quotation stage into the workflow, firms can also monitor acceptance and drop-off rates and make informed decisions to help convert more clients.
Completing digital ID and AML checks
Checks are a vital part of the onboarding journey. As such, systems must quickly identify trusted clients while spotting any signs of fraud risk. But clients can find manual ID verification time-consuming and inconvenient. And, in our digital age, they won’t look warmly on firms that waste their valuable time.
Today, clients and SRA guidance favour electronic identification verification, also known as eIDV, which, with the right technology, can pick up on fraud techniques that are not always obvious to humans.
The HMLR advised Safe Harbour encourages a higher level of digital identity check with four key requirements:
- Obtain evidence. Legal professionals must ensure the person they represent is who they say they are. This requires access to technology-enabled documentation to evidence a person’s identity (e.g. accepted biometric passports, ID cards etc.)
- Check the evidence. Client ID can be verified using cryptographic evidence and technology that checks digital signatures, watermarks, barcodes, etc. and identifies any flaws.
- Match the evidence to the identity. Passive liveness technology helps firms match a person’s information to the photographic evidence provided by automatically measuring and analysing an individual’s physical characteristics and reactions to determine if they are live and present. The technology then compares the live selfie to the one stored in the passport RFID chip to verify that it is the same person.
- Obtain evidence to ensure the transferor, borrower or lessor is the same person as the owner. Conveyancers must connect the individual to the property, but the sheer volume of data available makes manual checks almost impossible. A robust technology-driven onboarding system can automatically undertake comprehensive ID checks against thousands of documents (e.g. driving licenses, utility bills, bank statements, etc.) to ensure a match.
Completing and submitting forms
Once the client’s ID is verified, the onboarding system should ensure the swift sharing of documentation. From welcome packs to client care letters, it is crucial that:
- clients always know what they need to do next
- documents don’t get lost
- fee-earners don’t waste valuable time on unnecessary admin and chases
- clients don’t find the process frustrating and time-consuming.
By electronically sending all the required forms relevant to a matter and empowering clients to complete and submit these online, firms will benefit from a smooth onboarding process, a clear audit trail, and happier clients.
The bottom line
Minerva brings firms in line with technology-led service industries with faster file opening, secure real-time ID verification, and paperless end-to-end onboarding. Crucially, with a 97% accuracy rate, with Minerva you can safely and securely verify in minutes. Indeed, the whole onboarding process can be done in just 24hrs, compared to a two-week manual process.
Furthermore, because clients are likely to stay engaged in the onboarding process if they find it simple and hassle-free, as well as speeding everything up, removing the admin burden from law firms, and reducing the risk, Minerva also vastly improves the client experience and improves conversion rates.
To find out more about how your firm can benefit from a brilliant workflow for your onboarding, click here.
This article was submitted to be published by Minerva/Law Firm Services as part of their advertising agreement with Today’s Conveyancer. The views expressed in this article are those of the submitter and not those of Today’s Conveyancer.
