• Dunham McCarthy is a legal services firm registered in England and Wales under Company No. 07674579 whose registered office is at Dunston Business Village, Stafford Road, Stafford, ST18 9AB (“the Company”).
• The Clients relationship is with the Company and not with any other individual member or employee of the Company.
• The Company is a member of the Institute of Professional Willwriters (hereinafter referred to as “IPW”) and operates in accordance with its Code of Practice, copies of which are available free of charge either from the Company or from the IPW. Instances of non-compliance with this Code should be addressed to the IPW in writing at Trinity Point New Road, Halesowen, B63 3HY.

• Any advice that is given by the Company is based on its understanding of law, practices and procedures at the date of this agreement. The Company is not responsible for any consequences arising from any future changes in law, practices or procedures.
• The Company has professional indemnity insurance of £2 million and public liability insurance of £5 million to cover claims and losses worldwide (except in the United States and Canada) arising as a result of any negligent act by it.

• The company is a Legal Service firm and is not a Bank, Securities Broker or Financial Planner. Information provided by the Company is not intended to and does not constitute financial advice (save in relation to any tax or estate planning). Note that some advisors within The Dunham McCarthy Group are able to provide financial advice through Dunham McCarthy Financial Services ltd, an Appointed Representative of PRIMIS Mortgage Network, a trading name of First Complete Limited Limited which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
• Whilst basic information may be provided, our will drafting service does not extend to detailed inheritance tax advice; succession planning in relation to any business interests or advice on foreign assets.

• A free supervised attestation (signing and witnessing of documents) service is provided at the our offices. In the alternative a staff member is able to visit clients’ at their preferred location to supervise attestation, a fee may apply for this services depending on the location and client circumstances.
• Clients’ are under no obligation to take and pay for any additional products or services unless they are necessary as part of the delivery of an effective estate administration service. Clients’ may be required to sign a disclaimer if they choose not to purchase products or services recommended.

• We are professionally and legally obliged to keep all information regarding your affairs confidential at all times unless instructed to disclose information by you or where we are required to do so by law.
• Our practice is to retain client files for six years from the conclusion of the matter.
• Storage of Client files may be provided by third-party contractors either digitally or in hard copy. Clients agree to meet the reasonable costs of accessing files in off-site storage for reasons which do not relate to on-going work.
• We will ask you to provide us with detailed personal information relating to your current circumstances, finances, and in some cases, your health and that of your family (Your Information). We would like to explain to you why we record such information and the various rights you have in relation to this.
• Your Information refers to any information describing or relating to you. This information may identify you directly such as your name, address, date of birth, or indirectly such as your employment situation, or physical health. Examples include:

1. Names, date of birth, gender, civil/marital status.
2. Contact details.
3. Documents that are necessary for us to verify your identity.
4. Employment history and salary information.
5. Bank account details, credit information and history, sources of income and expenditure.
6. Details of any dependants, relations and remoter issue.
7. Information about assets and liabilities.
8. Tax information

• We request and record some information from you in order for advisors to provide you with the best advice given your specific circumstances. We only record information that is required to provide you with the services that we have agreed to provide you with.
• Your personal data can only be accessed by staff employed by Dunham McCarthy Group companies, and we do not pass on any of your details to third party companies, unless we have instructed them to carry out work on your behalf (this would always be done with your prior consent). We take all reasonable steps to ensure your personal data is processed securely and more information on this can be found on our website.
• In relation to your personal data you have the right to:

1. Request copies of Your Information that are in our possession
2. Ask us to further explain how we use Your Information
3. Ask us to correct, delete or require us to restrict or stop using Your Information
4. Ask us to send an electronic copy of Your Information to another organisation should you wish
5. Change the basis of any consent you may have provided to enable us to market to you in the future

We believe that it is important to keep in touch with clients as circumstances and the laws and regulations surrounding our areas of expertise change over the years. Also, we like to keep clients up to date with changes to the services that we offer.

To this end we request your written permission to use your contact information to communicate with you following completion of the current undertaking:

• Our fees do not include expenses or payments to third parties which we incur on a Clients behalf. These are known as ‘disbursements’. These will generally be billed at the same time as we invoice you for our fees, but may sometimes be billed at another time.
• If the Client requires work to be performed with special urgency, or after-hours, the company may recover a reasonable surcharge.
• An invoice will be produced on completion of any work requested and will be payable on the invoice date unless we have agreed with you otherwise in writing. Invoices can be settled by debit or credit card payment; cheque; bank transfer or cash.
• If an account is not paid we may charge interest on any amount outstanding from the date of the invoice until the date of payment at 8% p/a. In the alternative and where appropriate, we reserve the right to claim interest pursuant to the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998.

• If an account remains unpaid additional fees and administration charges will and if we decide to commence legal proceedings in order to recover the sums owed to us then we will be entitled to recover from you the legal costs that we incur in connection with those proceedings, together with all disbursements (including fees of Counsel engaged by us in our attempts to recover payment from you).
• If the Company does not correct any error or omission made by the Company without charge within 21 days of written notice by the Client, the Client may have any correction done elsewhere and that any resultant reasonable cost incurred will be borne by the Company.

• Customer service and support is provided to Clients free of charge for 90 days following the completion of work by the Company to the satisfaction of the Client, this service is available by calling 01785 711556 and pressing option 3.
• A client satisfaction survey is available at www.Dunham-McCarthy.co.uk/feedback to help the Company to improve, paper versions of the survey are available free of charge by contacting the Company or the IPW

• Our complaints process is as follows:

1. Where the Client is not happy with any aspect of service provided, the Client should first contact our Head of Estate Planning, Ursula Minshall whose telephone number is 01785 711556.
2. If they then wish to make a complaint, they must, in the first instance write to us. We will acknowledge your complaint within 3 working days of receipt and then investigate the circumstances of your complaint and communicate the results of the investigation within a further 28 days.
3. If you are not happy with the results of the investigation by the Company, you can write to the IPW, who will instigate a Conciliation Process to help you and the Company to reach a satisfactory agreement.
4. If you are not happy with the results of the Conciliation Process or if you choose not to take up the Conciliation Process following any investigation by the Company, you can write to the Estate Planning Arbitration Scheme (EPAS) who will then investigate your complaint and make a formal judgement but there will be a cost to you if you take this option. The Client may seek other forms of redress instead of, or as well as, those aforementioned

• The validity and suitability of any advice or documents provided, depends upon the honesty and accuracy of the answers to our questions. The Company is not responsible for consequences arising from inaccurate or incomplete information provided by you.
• Where Clients are instructing us as husband and wife/co-habitees/partners Clients hereby jointly agree that until we informed to the contrary, instructions from one Client will be deemed to be the instructions of both Clients.

• The Company is required under the Money Laundering Regulations 2007 to evidence the identity of all clients. Clients are therefore required to provide proof of identity (passport, drivers licence or HMRC correspondence).
• If Clients are unable to provide all of the information that we require to draft a document or provide a service within 28 days of this agreement the Client will be liable to pay the total fees on the 28th day.

• Where the Client has provided all the information required to complete the transaction and the timescales agreed with the Client are not met, the Client can cancel the contract and obtain a full refund of any fees paid or credit of those due, or renegotiate the contract (this does not apply to the administration of estates).