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This week: Technology and transparency: The key to conveyancing of the future; Retirement reform changes - what do these mean for the construction industry; and Outsourcing – The underestimated business model in conveyancing.

Technology and transparency: The key to conveyancing of the future
UK - Mortgage Finance Gazette
Whenever people are polled on life’s most stressful experiences, buying or selling a home is always right at the top. Rather than shrugging this off, or simply accepting that it will always be a cause of some tension, we need to do a much better job within the industry of identifying precisely why it causes so much stress, and what we can do about it. We have to remember that people rarely buy or sell a home; they simply don’t know what to expect – the process is foreign to them and many don’t even know what ‘conveyancing’ is.

Home movers’ understanding of the conveyancer’s role is also limited, they don’t know what they are going to be doing during the conveyancing process beyond the need to be involved, under law. Add to this the high value, high risk nature of housing transactions and the raw emotion of leaving the place you call home, and it’s no surprise that home movers often feel the strain.

I am convinced that we can do far more within conveyancing to take the weight of stress off home movers’ shoulders and deliver a simple, comforting experience.
Mortgage Finance Gazette

Retirement reform changes - what do these mean for the construction Industry
South Africa - PropertyWheel
Construction business owners need to familiarize themselves with the retirement reform changes set to take effect on the 1st of March 2021. By communicating these changes to their employees, they may be able to minimise any uncertainties experienced ahead of the day.

Danie Hattingh, Principal Officer of the BIBC Pension Fund and Executive Committee Member of the Master Builders Association Western Cape (MBAWC) says that provident funds will now be subject to the same rules at retirement as pension funds and retirement annuities. “However, those aged fifty-five or older on the 1st of March 2021, who remain a member of the same provident fund, will be exempted from these changes” he says.

Meaning, that from the 1st of March 2021, those under the age of fifty-five will have to use a minimum of two-thirds of their retirement benefits towards purchasing a monthly pension when they retire. “Once you retire, the total of your benefit that was already in your provident fund before and on the 1st of March 2021, will not be affected by these changes.”.
PropertyWheel

Outsourcing – The Underestimated Business Model in Conveyancing
UK - TodaysConveyancer
Outsourcing is a business model that has shown its worth especially during the coronavirus pandemic, especially in conveyancing firms/departments where good quality work has been delivered by outsourced companies.

This article aims to dispel some of the myths surrounding outsourcing and why in today’s climate, where conveyancing is such an aggressive market to profit from, having an outsourced partner is very much an appreciated resource to have.

In the last decade there has been a significant shift in the formation and business structure of conveyancing firms as they quite rightly look at themselves as businesses first and foremost rather than just a law firm, which some may say was the mindset some decades ago. With this change a more aggressive legal industry has been created especially in the world of conveyancing. Needless to say, technology has played a massive role in this new formed vigour, but one should not overlook that a more subtle player comes in the form of the outsourced business model.
TodaysConveyancer