Privacy Policy
This policy explains what personal information A.D.E Wills collects, why we collect it, how long we keep it and what rights you have. We have written it in plain English. If anything is unclear, please call us on 01865 507174 and we will talk it through.
1. Who We Are
A.D.E Wills is a trading name of A.D.E Estate Planning Limited, a company registered in England and Wales. We are the data controller for the personal information described in this policy, which means we decide how and why it is used.
How to contact us about your information
A.D.E Estate Planning Limited
46 Woodstock Road, Oxford, OX2 6HT
Telephone: 01865 507174
Email: info@adewills.co.uk
Registered office: 8 Sharp Close, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, HP21 8RR
Your Will and Lasting Powers of Attorney are prepared by Edward Richings, a full member of The Society of Will Writers, working to their Code of Practice.
2. What This Policy Covers
This policy covers all the personal information we handle, not just information collected through our website. That includes:
- enquiries made by telephone, email, our website form or in person
- information you give us during a Will or Lasting Power of Attorney appointment, whether at home, at our office or by video
- documents we prepare, store and review for you
- information about other people that you give us, such as executors and beneficiaries
It does not cover other organisations’ websites we link to. Those have their own policies.
3. Information We Collect
3.1 If You Contact Us
When you make an enquiry, we collect your name, contact details and whatever you choose to tell us about what you need. If you book an appointment online we also collect the date and time you have chosen.
3.2 If You Become a Client
To prepare your documents properly we need a good deal more. Depending on what you have asked us to do, this can include:
- your full name, any previous names, address, date of birth and contact details
- your marital or civil partnership status, and details of your family
- details of your property, savings, investments, pensions, business interests and other assets
- your wishes for who should inherit, who should act as executor, trustee, guardian or attorney, and any funeral wishes
- details of any existing Will, Lasting Power of Attorney or trust
- evidence of your identity and address, which we are required by law to obtain
- notes of our meetings and correspondence with you
3.3 Proof of Identity
We are required under the Money Laundering Regulations 2017 to verify your identity and address before we act for you. That normally means seeing a passport or driving licence and a recent utility bill or council tax bill, and keeping a record of what we have seen.
3.4 If You Visit Our Website
Our website collects very little. We do not use Google Analytics or any other analytics or tracking service, and we do not use advertising cookies. Our hosting provider keeps standard server logs, which include IP addresses, for security and maintenance. If you complete our enquiry form, the information you enter is emailed to us and also stored in our website’s database.
4. Health and Other Sensitive Information
Some of the information we handle is treated as more sensitive under data protection law. For us, this is usually information about your health.
4.1 Mental Capacity
We assess mental capacity as a standard part of preparing a Will or Lasting Power of Attorney. To do that we may record observations about your health and understanding, and in some cases ask for a medical report or a GP assessment.
4.2 Our Lawful Basis for This
Where we handle health information, we rely on your explicit consent. We will explain what we need and why before we ask for it, and you can withdraw that consent at any time — though we may then be unable to continue preparing your documents.
4.3 Other Sensitive Information
Occasionally you may tell us something sensitive for another reason — a beneficiary’s disability affecting how you wish to provide for them, for example. We record only what is relevant to the instructions you have given us.
5. Information About Other People
Preparing a Will or a Lasting Power of Attorney means recording details of people who have not contacted us themselves — executors, trustees, guardians, beneficiaries, attorneys and people to be notified. This is usually their name, address and relationship to you, and sometimes their date of birth.
5.1 Where That Information Comes From
You give it to us. We do not obtain it from anywhere else.
5.2 Our Lawful Basis
We rely on our legitimate interests: your documents cannot be prepared or later administered without identifying these people. We hold only what is necessary and we do not use it to contact them, except where an appointment requires it — for example, notifying the people you have chosen when a Lasting Power of Attorney is registered.
5.3 If You Are Named in Someone’s Documents
You have the same rights over that information as anyone else, set out in section 11. Please note that we cannot disclose the contents of another person’s Will, or confirm whether we hold one, without their authority.
5.4 Please Tell Them
If you give us someone else’s details, please let them know. You are responsible for having their agreement to share their information with us.
6. Why We Use It and Our Lawful Basis
Data protection law requires us to have a lawful basis for using your information. Ours are set out below.
6.1 To provide the services you have asked for
Preparing, storing, reviewing and updating your Wills, Lasting Powers of Attorney and related documents.
Lawful basis: performance of our contract with you.
6.2 To verify your identity
Anti-money-laundering checks before we act for you.
Lawful basis: compliance with a legal obligation under the Money Laundering Regulations 2017.
6.3 To assess mental capacity
Recording health observations and obtaining medical reports where needed.
Lawful basis: your explicit consent.
6.4 To respond to enquiries
Answering questions, providing quotes and arranging appointments before any contract exists.
Lawful basis: our legitimate interests in responding to people who contact us.
6.5 To record details of other people
Executors, beneficiaries, attorneys and others named in your documents.
Lawful basis: our legitimate interests in preparing documents that can be relied upon.
6.6 To run our practice
Invoicing, keeping accounting records, maintaining our professional indemnity insurance and handling any complaint or claim.
Lawful basis: compliance with a legal obligation, and our legitimate interests in running and protecting the business.
8. Where Your Information Is Held
Your paper documents are held securely at our office. Electronic records are held on our systems and those of the providers listed above.
Some of those providers are based outside the United Kingdom, or store information outside it. Where that happens, we make sure appropriate safeguards are in place — usually the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to the European Commission’s standard contractual clauses, or a finding by the UK government that the country provides adequate protection.
You can ask us for more detail about any particular transfer at any time.
9. How Long We Keep It
We do not keep your information longer than we need to.
9.1 Client files and documents
Kept for six years after our work for you is finished. Wills often come back into use many years later, and we may need our file to answer a question about how a document was prepared.
9.2 Wills and documents we store for you
Kept for as long as we store them under a Safe Will Plan or Legacy Care Plan, and released to your executors when needed.
9.3 Identity records
Kept for five years from the end of our business relationship, as the Money Laundering Regulations 2017 require.
9.4 Accounting records
Kept for six years from the end of the relevant financial year, as tax and company law require.
9.5 Enquiries that do not become instructions
Kept for twelve months, then deleted.
When information is no longer needed, we destroy paper records securely and delete electronic ones.
10. Keeping Your Information Safe
We take practical steps to protect your information. Paper files and original documents are held in locked, fireproof storage. Electronic records are held on password-protected, encrypted and backed-up systems. Access is limited to those who need it.
No system can be guaranteed completely secure, but we take the protection of your information seriously and review our arrangements regularly.
11. Your Rights
Under UK data protection law you have the following rights. They are free to exercise, and we will respond within one month.
- Access — ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you
- Correction — ask us to correct anything inaccurate or incomplete
- Erasure — ask us to delete your information, where we have no continuing reason to keep it
- Restriction — ask us to pause using your information while a concern is resolved
- Portability — ask for information you gave us in a portable electronic format
- Objection — object to our using your information where we rely on legitimate interests
- Withdraw consent — where we rely on your consent, withdraw it at any time
11.1 Some Limits
These rights are not absolute. We cannot delete identity records we are legally required to keep, or accounting records within their retention period. If we cannot do what you have asked, we will explain why.
11.2 How to Ask
Call 01865 507174 or email info@adewills.co.uk. We may need to confirm your identity first.
13. Marketing
We do not send marketing emails or newsletters, and we do not operate a mailing list. If that changes we will ask for your consent first, and you will be able to opt out at any time.
We may contact existing clients about their own documents — an annual review reminder under a Legacy Care Plan or Safe Will Plan, for example. That is part of the service you have asked for, not marketing.
14. Questions and Complaints
14.1 Speak to Us First
If you have a question or concern about how we handle your information, please contact us on 01865 507174 or at info@adewills.co.uk. We would rather hear about it and put it right.
14.2 The Information Commissioner’s Office
You also have the right to complain to the ICO, the UK’s data protection regulator. You do not have to contact us first, though we would appreciate the chance to help.
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Telephone: 0303 123 1113
Website: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint
15. Changes to This Policy
We review this policy regularly and will update it when our practices change or the law does. The date at the top shows when it was last updated. If we make a significant change affecting how we use information you have already given us, we will tell you directly.