Co-op to support thousands more consumers as it expands its later life planning offering in Scotland

01 November 2018

The Co-op today announces its partnership with legal practice, McClure Solicitors, as it sets out to further expand its probate and estate planning services to thousands more people across Scotland.

The partnership will further cement the Co-op’s position as the leading provider of probate in the UK. It also underpins Co-op’s ambition to grow its later life business, which currently provides a range of services and products including wills, probate, lasting power of attorney and funeral plans.

The collaboration will see the legal provider’s customers and over half a million Co-op members in Scotland able to benefit from McClure Solicitors’ probate and estate planning services. McClure Solicitors, an award-winning legal practise founded in Scotland in 1853, currently specialises in asset protection, estate and inheritance planning.

Furthermore, Co-op Funeralcare will work in a partnership with McClure Solicitors, to support clients with the probate and estate planning process in Scotland. The new venture will see McClure Solicitors offer Co-op clients transparent fixed fee prices, as well as a guarantee to beat competitor quotes on probate services, providing a consistent client experience across the country¹.

Matt Howells, Managing Director of Co-op’s Legal Services and Life business, said:

“I am pleased to announce our partnership with award winning solicitors practice McClure Solicitors.

“Our ambition is to continue to lead the later life planning market and this new partnership will enable us to broaden our estate planning services to meet more of our Co-op members’ needs across Scotland.

“McClure Solicitors share our values for delivering excellent client care, transparent services in a timely manner and so we couldn’t have hoped for a more suited practice to provide our products and services.”

Andrew Robertson, Managing Director at McClure Solicitors, added:

“We’re delighted to announce our partnership with the Co-op to deliver their later life products and services in Scotland. There is a natural fit between our organisations; we’re focussed on delivering outstanding client service and easing the practical burden for bereaved families at what can be an extremely difficult time.

‘’From our perspective, the partnership is an important step in the natural progression of our business giving us access and reach for our services across Scotland in a transformative way.”

[ENDS]

Media Contact:

Sarah Pyatt
Press Officer
07850 002 312
Sarah.Pyatt@coop.co.uk

¹Co-op Legal Services guarantees to beat any comparable, “like for like” probate services by £1. By ‘probate services’ we mean the legal and financial processes involved in dealing with the property, money and possessions (called the assets) of a person who has died. Full T&Cs can be found here: https://bit.ly/2PZP58s

About The Co-op:

The Co-op, one of the world’s largest consumer co-operatives, with interests across food, funerals, insurance, electrical and legal services, has a clear purpose of championing a better way of doing business for you and your communities. Owned by millions of UK consumers, the Co-operates a total of 3,750 outlets, with more than 70,000 colleagues and an annual turnover of approximately £10 billion.

Home to the UK’s leading funeral provider, Co-op Funeralcare conducts almost 100,000 funerals annually across over 1,000 funeral homes. Combined with its leading legal services business, the Co-op is also a national provider of later life products and services ranging from funeral plans, through to wills and probate.

Co-op Legal Services, which is fully regulated by the Solicitor’s Regulation Authority, became the first alternative business structure (ABS) in the UK in 2012, and has long been established as a market leader in Probate and estate administration and as one of the leading Will writing businesses in the UK.

In early 2016 the Co-op acquired Collective Legal Solutions. Now fully integrated into the Co-op Legal Services business as Co-op Estate Planning, this complements the businesses online and telephone services by providing face-to-face legal advice on Wills, Probate and Later Life Planning throughout communities across the UK.