Due Diligence
Estate Research believe it’s now more important than ever to demonstrate why we are a company you can trust
The Probate Genealogy industry is not regulated. There is no independent body maintaining the standard for all professional genealogy companies. Over the last few years there have been a few ‘regulatory bodies’ established, but they are run by genealogy companies and therefore do not offer the independence demanded by an industry body, and for that reason we have refused to join.
However, we do recognise that we need to be constantly improving standards and practice. Where applicable we have recognised the need for staff to be qualified, so the majority of case managers are qualified paralegals and subject to regulation from PPR.
As paralegals, we are members of the Institute of Paralegals (IOP) and more importantly we are regulated by the independent professional body for paralegals, the Professional Paralegal Register (PPR). This provides consumers with an independent complaints procedure and access to compensation. Moreover, it reassures any authority considering using our services that we have the expertise and qualifications to complete any matter to a high standard.
Due to the unregulated nature of the industry, it is up to each individual company to implement their own standards and
procedures. There are numerous accreditations and certificates available to genealogists. We have only obtained the accreditations we believe essential and that add value to our work.
We would consider it essential that a genealogy company has the relevant ISO certifications, especially in data management. Here are our relevant accreditations and certifications:
Estate Research are committed to collecting, processing and storing data in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). We are dedicated to safeguarding the personal information under our remit as well as developing a data protection regime that is effective, fit for purpose and demonstrates an understanding and appreciation of new regulation.
We take our responsibilities to data very seriously and have a Data Protection Officer and Data Protection Manager to ensure we are protecting these rights correctly, and all of our staff have ongoing GDPR training.
On request, we can provide you with a Data Sharing Agreement or a Controller to Controller Agreement which details our responsibilities. We can also use encrypted emails to ensure an extra level of data security.
We also want to assure you that we handle things correctly when communicating with any family of the deceased. Estate Research has a policy of full transparency. which has been standard procedure since the company began in 2001. We always share the following information with the family:
We also want to assure you that we handle things correctly when communicating with any family of the deceased. Estate Research has a policy of full transparency. which has been standard procedure since the company began in 2001. We always share the following information with the family:
This ensures the family can make a fully informed decision as to whether they would like to use our services.
There is absolutely no obligation to use our services, however; the majority of people recognise the amount of work that has been undertaken by Estate Research, want to benefit from the use of our expertise and appreciate the security our service providers to their own finances.
It’s important that genealogists demonstrate the level of insurance that protects the public sector body against claims. As standard we hold the following levels of insurance:
| Type of insurance | Level of cover |
|---|---|
| Public Liability | £2,000,000 |
| Employers Liability | £10,000,000 |
| Professional Indemnity | £1,500,000 |
At Estate Research, we believe that the quality of our service should be consistent regardless of who is responding to the enquiry or who the customer is.
We have developed a robust complaints procedure to ensure complaints are fairly dealt with in a timely manner.
We also have a customer care manual and associated flowchart downloadable from our website.
