Jonathon Amponsah FCCA CTA, Director of My Estate Planner
Having personally experienced the painful journey of handling the financial affairs relating to his late father’s estate, and having seen another close family member and mentor pass away and witnessing the anguish of his widow relating to the probate work, Jonathon Amponsah decided to make a bold move and become an accredited estate planner and probate specialist.
As a chartered accountant and tax adviser, Jonathan could see that more help was needed to support people with estate planning, wills and probate to reduce stress for families facing this difficult process, while also helping to protect loved ones and reduce inheritance tax or penalties.
Having accredited, Jonathan established My Estate Planner Ltd in January 2018, which is focused on raising greater awareness of the thorny issues relating to estate planning and probate, and to help families reflect, take action and avoid unnecessary emotional suffering.
Today My Estate Planner supports families across the country and, in late 2019, Jonathan embarked on a search for a case management system that would help him track every case as the organisation continued to expand.
Probate cases aren’t straightforward or easily-automated, but instead involve detailed family, estate accounting, and tax rules. It is therefore advantageous to adopt an intelligent, specialist legal workflow software that understands current regulations, as Jonathan explains:
“Having received a large increase in the number of probate enquiries, I decided to implement a case management programme that would help guide me through the process of each probate case, and keep track of progress to ensure I work as efficiently as possible.
“I originally contacted four providers but was immediately impressed by Ochresoft and its Intelliworks system; the team were very responsive with my initial enquiry and I could see that not only would Intelliworks allow me to keep track of individual cases, but I could draw from hundreds of standard precedents in its built-in legal library. The other offerings were not comparable to Intelliworks.”
Having made the decision to work with Intelliworks, Jonathan is happy with the results he is receiving: “The workflow process really streamlines key tasks for estates of all sizes, plus the system includes many templates, which save a great deal of time. It supports me with the end-to-end process and makes sure nothing is missed along the way.
“The integrated nature of the workflow really suits me and keeps me on track with the next steps of every case. A client can call me, and I can log-in and see the current status at any time. Intelliworks is also strong in supporting the probate application and IHT forms tasks, as well as with the accounts preparation.
“I strongly recommend that probate professionals give Intelliworks a go for all the reasons mentioned. From the sales to the demo, right through to the training, I have been delighted with the services received; and to have a trainer who used to be a lawyer in private client practice was a bonus as it meant we could talk and understand issues better. The trainer has been a delight to work with and the support has been a major factor for me.
“Ochresoft set-up online training in bite-size sessions and took me through my first case. When Probate was granted, my trainer Johanna scheduled another session to walk through the other steps in the workflow. The ‘per case’ pricing also means you’re not being charged unless you use it.
“Overall, the staff and support from Ochresoft is very much appreciated. Software without support cannot thrive. My experience of Ochresoft and Intelliworks has been very positive.”
