Legal Tech and Legal Advice – An Entrepreneur’s Journey
Having worked in the contentious probate sector for over 20 years, Martin Holdsworth founded IDR Law in 2017. Since then it has grown to a team of nine and is continues to expand. IDR stands for Inheritance Dispute Resolution, in which Martin is one of the leading experts in the country. Ranked band 1 in the Chambers and Partners Rankings, Martin is passionate about developing affordable LegalTech to help families avoid upset and claims.
“In virtually every dispute I have dealt with, there comes a realisation by the affected family that, if only their loved one had put plans in place during life, then all the financial, emotional and litigious suffering could have been avoided.”
When you meet Martin, the passion he has for his work and for the people he works with, be they colleagues or clients, is obvious. He wants to help others. With so much experience dealing with bereaved families and the suffering caused by their loved ones not adequately planning for death, Martin wanted to develop solutions to avoid this suffering – to ensure people do plan for the one thing that is certain life, the one thing none of us can avoid: our death.
Whilst his law firm IDR Law was created to help families resolve estate disputes following death, he also set up a Legal Tech development company, Metrona Technologies (Metrona is an acronym of the initials of his wife and 4 children) to develop low-cost high-volume software solutions for individuals and companies, with the aim of reducing the volume of inheritance dispute claims at source and therefore reducing emotional and financial suffering.
Metrona Technologies has developed and launched Larke, https://www.larkeonline.co.uk/ , which is a cost effective solution designed to help ensure wills are more robust and less likely to be subject of claims – it includes a supervisory dashboard, prompts for will writers relating to potential capacity, undue influence, 1975 Act issues and then on execution of the will, automatically produces a Larke -v- Nugus type statement to store with the will file in anticipation of any future claim enquiry. It helps anyone writing wills ensure they ask the right questions and keep the right notes to help wills be more resistant to future claims.
iDivide, an innovative and low-cost solution to the expensive and emotional division of estate chattels, is a joint venture between Metrona Technologies and a nationally recognised mediator. This online service is close to release and has a “perceived fairness algorithm” at its core which works to ensure that all beneficiaries recover a share of the chattels that they all believe is fair.
Martin and Andrew Bartle came up with the concept of Inheritance Advance and, realising its potential, Andrew set up a new company, Tower Street Finance – https://towerstreetfinance.co.uk/, to deliver this unique product. Tower Street Finance has recently received FCA approval to advance a large proportion of expected inheritance to beneficiaries long before the complex probate process is complete, allowing people access to funds without any monthly repayments or credit checks. Tower street Finance are repaid and the individual receives the remainder of the estate on completion of probate.
FRisk https://www.familyriskreport.co.uk/, launched last month, is an online service highlighting the real risk to your loved ones upon your death or loss of capacity, if you’ve no proper planning in place. FRisk – family risk management – personalises the impact of death and loss of capacity by creating a bespoke, online report with links to trusted service providers. This is a powerful catalyst to prompt individuals to get their wills, LPAs and affairs in order. 10% of all FRisk profits go to the bereavement charity, Grief Encounter.
Martin is changing the way we talk about death: we need to plan for the inevitable and his innovative Legal Tech solutions make this easier for us all.
IDR Law is an approachable, boutique firm and the only one in the country dealing solely with inheritance dispute resolution. Whether you’re a law firm, or an individual who feels they would benefit from our expertise, get in touch here, email us at [email protected] or call on 01423 637050.