A ‘product’ refers to a single HotDocs linked package of documents, for a single person or entity. Each meeting is a separate product.  For example:

(a) for the estate planning ‘package’, this product includes a will, enduring power of attorney and memo of directions and related documentation for a person and at least one meeting. If a single person, this equates to 2 products (being the estate planning package and the meeting), or 3 products if 2 meetings (being the estate planning package and the 2 meetings).  If a couple this equates to 4 products (being 2 estate planning packages and 2 customers attending a meeting), or 6 products if there are 2 meetings (being 2 estate planning packages and 2 customers attending 2 meetings);

(b) other than products in the Core service level, meetings are at the election of the adviser;

(c) any meeting does count towards the monthly product usage, regardless of which service level is selected – for example if a trust is being established with a trustee company and a meeting is desired, this counts as 3 products.

(d) a BDBN package includes the review of the trust deed, the BDBN, resolution and all member notices and equates to one product for each BDBN package (ie 1 product for each person) – if the product is being implemented at the same time as estate planning documentation and a meeting is preferred, the meeting concerning the BDBN is included the estate planning product. If the BDBN is not as part of an estate planning exercise, the meeting is a sperate product (meaning 2 products counted for a BDBN package with a meeting, implemented outside an estate planning package).

This is decided on a collaborative basis so that your membership is flexible and unique to your business needs.

Consider this in another way.

If you are a financial planning practice, would you allow a law firm to populate and create your customers’ statement of advice without overview by you?

If you are an accounting practice, would you allow a law firm to populate and create your customers’ tax returns and financial statements without overview by you?

Sound ridiculous?

Yet many professional advisers are doing this on a daily basis with legal documents and think that they are safe from risk.

Knowing the documents that your customer needs is different to knowing the laws and clauses that need to be considered and drafted into those documents to create the outcome planned. Where advisers are taking a role as a facilitator without legal support it is extremely likely that the adviser is creating uninsurable risks for their business and that customer’s documents will not operate as intended. Problems caused by the use of legal templates without legal overview are regularly sent to the View Legal team and the costs to remedy are high.

Ultimately the end customer is the one who suffers the most in these scenarios, whether that be the loss of asset protection they thought they had, or unintended tax consequences. . Advisers lose their credibility with their customers, and are likely to be asked to pay some, if not all costs of remedy on behalf of the customer (generally without their insurers contributing). Often the customer  will move their business to a new adviser.

Therefore, any short-term gain in cost ‘saving’ is ultimately lost.

Some of the issues that View has seen when advisers have used template providers are as follows:

ISSUE: Accounting firm ordered a Unit Trust deed, however no schedule populated.
OUTCOME: Document was invalid and new documentation had to be completed which caused unplanned tax and stamp duty consequences. Accounting firm had to pay costs on behalf of customer.

ISSUE: Financial Planning firm ordered a Family Trust Deed, however the beneficiary classes were not included.
OUTCOME: Planned beneficiaries where not able to benefit under the deed and customer suffered losses due incorrect documentation and tax penalties.

ISSUE: Law firm ordered a Fixed Trust Deed, however clauses were for a discretionary trust deed.
OUTCOME: Trust’s assets and income at risk from a tax perspective due to incorrect set up of deed, as well as unnecessary land tax costs paid.

ISSUE: Accounting firm ordered a Deed of Variation for the retirement of a director of the trustee company.
OUTCOME: Company records were not updated as documentation needed was an ASIC form – not a trust variation. Resettlement of the deed was avoided in this case however the process to remedy became a lengthy and expensive exercise for the underlying firm who had to pay the customers costs for the error.

There are three steps to achieving accreditation:

1. Complete the accreditation exam within 30 days of joining the platform.
2. Complete at least five hours of self assessed continuing entity establishment education with View Legal every 12 months (attending customer online meetings, View webinars, listening to free View legal podcasts and TechniVIEW Facebook lives all count towards the five hours).
3. Join the TechniVIEW community (in the ‘Friend’, ‘BFF’, or ‘Family’ categories) here;

All three steps must be satisfied for accreditation.

For other FAQs about accreditation click here. 

Yes. Make contact to learn more by emailing [email protected].

Unused solutions are rolled over to the next month (but no further).  If there are 3 months of under use we recommend thought be given to a different service level.

The overuse of solutions are rolled over to the next month (but no further).  If there are 3 months of over use we recommend thought be given to a different service level.

Via your ”My Account” page by clicking on the appropriate solution.

Arguably, the leading case in this area is Legal Practice Board v Computer Accounting and Tax Pty Ltd [2007] WASC184.
In this particular case, an accountant arranged for a trust deed to be bought for a client over the internet. The base trust instrument had been written by lawyers however, the accountant then populated the template.
In doing so, the court held that practically this meant that the accounting firm was breaching the relevant legislation.
In all likelihood, the accountant (and indeed any adviser, other than a qualified lawyer) would not be covered by their professional indemnity insurance in relation to any issues that arose out of the trust instrument.
Despite the proliferation of online providers, the decision in this case remains a very important one for any adviser facilitating legal solutions.
In many respects, it reinforces the approach adopted by View who, while leveraging significantly off technology driven solutions, still ensure that all documentation is reviewed by a fully qualified, specialist lawyer, and where relevant, a certificate of compliance is provided confirming that all legal advice has been provided by View, and not the facilitating adviser.

Yes, View does understand this and will respect and accept your decision and will close access to the key View resources and your account.

Non-accredited advisers wanting View to assist with solutions can still lodge free review submissions.

View can assist in these instances in a more traditional way of providing a suggested scope of work and upfront service guaranteed fixed pricing without the referring adviser facilitating the process.

There are three steps to achieving accreditation:

1. Complete the accreditation exam within 30 days of joining the platform.

2. Complete at least five hours of self assessed continuing education with View Legal every 12 months (attending customer online meetings, View webinars, listening to free View legal podcasts and Facebook lives all count towards the five hours).

3. Join the AdVIEWser community (in the ‘Friend’, ‘BFF’, or ‘Family’ categories) here;

All three steps must be satisfied for accreditation.

The benefits of accreditation include:

1. membership of a closed community of advisers passionate about delivering holistic estate planning solutions for their customers;
2. ongoing regular adviser centric continuing education;
3. ongoing discussion and knowledge sharing with like-minded advisers.

Yes. 

Each adviser who is submitting instructions on behalf of a customer must use their own accreditation number.

Where an adviser has another team member submitting instructions, that team member may use the accreditation number of the adviser that they are working with, without themselves being accredited.

As an accredited adviser with View’s platform, your customers will be assured of the level of commitment and specialisation you have in providing value in this space.

The position in relation to digital signatures is as follows:
1. There are material issues with the validity of deeds signed electronically in all jurisdictions other than NSW (and in NSW before 22 November 2018).

2. If a transaction must be carried out by deed then DocuSign and similar platforms should not at this stage be used unless the law of the jurisdiction explicitly states that a deed can be in electronic form and signed and attested (if required) by electronic signature.

3. Currently, the only jurisdiction that allows this is NSW – assuming all parties are individuals and all parties and the witnesses are physically in the same place at the point of signing.

4. There is a material argument that a corporation cannot execute under s.127 of the Corporations Act through an electronic signature (even in NSW).

5. Even with the November 2018 change in NSW, institutions (eg banks) and law firms have continued to refuse to accept the validity of electronic signatures.

6. Until the various issues are clarified by clear and authoritative Court decisions and legislation, wet signatures are recommended on all deeds.

7. Change will come; however the sense is it will be later, not sooner.

8. Covid19 has seen some temporary concessions in this area, however generally the rules are difficult to satisfy and wherever possible the conservative approach remains ensuring wet signatures are used.

View Legal provides the legal advice when issuing the legal documentation
Via the View Legal platform, the adviser who facilitates the process is issued a compliance driven certificate.
No comparative providers offer this protection.

While many legal document providers state their documents are ‘legally backed’, this simply means a lawyer drafted the baseline template.

Provision of the completed document to a customer is a risk that you and your firm carries every time you use these style of platforms.

Example exclusion wording is as follows (for clarity, View does the opposite to the approach below and gives you a legal sign off on the documents issued for your customer):

By using our service agree that:

• we cannot, and do not, give you legal advice;
  
  
• the company that owns and operates this service is not a law firm;
  
  
• our service provides information to help you answer the questions and to order a product and that that information is information only, not advice; 

• we cannot and do not warrant that a product you decide to order is appropriate or suits your needs;

• we cannot and do not warrant that your use of our service is appropriate or suits your needs;

• the legal, commercial and taxation effects of a product vary and a product’s suitability will, therefore, vary according to particular circumstances; 

• only you know the purpose for which you intend to apply a product you order and that we are not responsible for the choice you make regarding the same; 

• you must consult a lawyer for advice concerning the suitability of a product you order using our service;

• the documents you buy from us and the material on our website is only general; they are not prepared by us and we do not endorse them, rather we disclaim any responsibility for them;

Many providers also have statements along the following lines:

1. You agree that if we are prohibited by law from excluding all implied warranties and conditions, then our liability will be limited to, at our option: 

(a)          replacing the document you used our service to order;

(b)          supply of some equivalent document;

(c)           amendment of the document; or

(d)          payment of the cost of such replacement, supply or amendment.

2. You agree that:

(a)          to the extent that we are not prohibited by law from limiting our liability, then our liability is limited in the same manner as set out above, including in respect of any liability that arises as a consequence of our negligence; 

(b)          our liability to you for any matter related to the subject matter of these terms and conditions will not include any special, indirect, incidental or consequential damages or loss of profits and will not exceed the cost to you for the particular transaction which has caused you the loss or damage; and 

(c)           we are not responsible in any way for any liability, loss, damage or expense that arises directly or indirectly from a problem that occurs by any virus infecting our service. 

3. We do not warrant that the operation of our service will be uninterrupted or that our service is virus free or error free.

Indeed some providers even state:

1. You agree that you indemnify us in relation to any loss or damage that any of you, your client, or a third party suffers because: 

(a)          the product you ordered is not suitable for its intended purpose or does not suit the relevant circumstances;

(b)          you failed to obtain formal advice from a professional adviser concerning whether the product you chose is suitable for its intended purpose or circumstances; 

(c)           of the answers you provide to questions asked of you when using our service;

(d)          you did not answer all questions completely and accurately.

2. You agree that you continue to indemnify us indefinitely against any cost, loss, liability, or damage that we incur as a result of your use of our service.

No.

You have complete discretion as to what pricing approach you adopt with your customer and this should not be disclosed to View.

It will be up to you (perhaps in conjunction with your licensee, if relevant) as to whether you disclose any payments made by your firm to View to the customer.