Hugo Goodale

It has given us more time to be able to speak with our Clients and assist them and really given us more ability to be more pro-active. We are still in the process of finalising implementation of the system. It came in at the end of June and although it’s been invaluable, we are being very careful in getting it right; security is paramount when moving lots of personal data. The good news is that its cloud based which means we have the opportunity of working from home and it just makes life so much more efficient, especially when the data is available to us so easily. It’s been challenging and exciting, but I wouldn’t change it!”

Hugo Goodale, Casey & Associates
February 2021
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“Exciting change is on the horizon for Casey & Associates during the course of 2020. We are having a new website built by the team at Studio44. We are also having a bespoke Client Relationship Management (CRM) system created for us that places service to our Client at its core. We have tried an ‘off the shelf’ package over the last two and a half to three years and now we are ready to move to the next generation and we are really excited with having a new system that is created just for us.

We are aiming for the website to be ready by the end of March and the CRM system up and running at the end of June. I am really looking forward to that. It is going to be a really important part of the future development of the company and should make life much more efficient for us, which will allow us to move up a gear in striving to always deliver exceptional service to our Clients.

60% of the population of England and Wales don’t have a Will. There’s a really common misconception in our country that naming god parents or making arrangements in life is going to help secure where the children go to and that is not correct. The only way is by having a Will, otherwise social services will come in. We want to educate everyone that if you have children under the age of 18, you need to have a Will that has a parental responsibility agreement. You never know what’s going to happen.

Aretha Franklin had three hand-written undated Wills that were stuffed down the back of a sofa which the family didn’t find for six weeks after her death. So now they’re going through the process of establishing which one is the latest; getting specialists in to check the ink and to see how much one has faded and trying to analyse the paper to see if they can date each individual Will to see how it might have changed over the course of weeks, months or years. That’s someone with a $70 million estate without a professionally drafted Will in place!

Recently, we had a Client that issued Hugh, our Practice Director, and my Father, with instructions to create Wills and Lasting Power of Attorney documents – the client needed to take the paperwork to his daughter over a weekend or at the latest on the Monday morning. So, to make sure the paperwork got to him in time for him to go and take it to his daughter, I hand delivered it at twenty past seven on the Friday night, on my way home. The Client could not quite believe the extent to which we had gone to ensure he had it in time, and that he had met two Goodale’s in a matter of days!

We cover the South East and are looking for further Consultants to represent us. We have three areas that need covering. The first area is the CO (Colchester) postcode. Secondly we are looking for representation in the BN (Brighton) postcode together with some adjacent TN and RH postcode districts. And finally we are looking for a Consultant to cover the RG (Reading), SL (Slough) and TW (Twickenham) postcodes. The role of a Consultant is to visit new, and existing, Clients in the comfort of their own home. Consultants will also visit families of Clients who have passed away. Casey & Associates carries out the initial meeting to start the process of estate administration for deceased Clients. The file is then transferred to one of the three or four trusted third parties that we work with who solely process the estate administration. We firmly believe that specialising in one area of an industry allows us to deliver the best service and advice to our Clients. A simplified view is that we deal with the affairs up to, and including, the moment of death, and then we ensure a smooth transfer to the specialist company who will be carrying out the estate administration. Estate administration is a detailed, and often complex, process. It is really easy to make a mistake and some of the stories I have heard have been dreadful; funds being distributed and then a beneficiary coming out of the woodwork that wasn’t notified. Absolute pandemonium can result – it is better left to the professionals!

A single Will starts at just £300 plus VAT and for a couple it’s £500 plus VAT – we come and visit you at your home. We’ve got appointments available throughout the day and into the evening which is ideal for those with children or those who commute. We will do everything reasonably possible to accommodate anyone who would like an appointment.”

Hugo Goodale, Casey & Associates
February 2020

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Story posted on December 13th 2018

“I have worked at Casey & Associates, a family run legal services firm specialising in Will Writing, Estate Planning and Trusts for homeowners, since 2009. My Father is the Practice Director. I spent the majority of my school holidays as a teenager helping with administrative tasks and most importantly of all…making the tea!

Working with family is challenging, but is just as equally rewarding and I would not change it at all. I have undertaken virtually every role within the company which provides me with firm foundations when looking to the future and the continuation of the company. We have over 20,000 Clients throughout the South East of England and are absolutely committed to delivering high levels of satisfaction and service to our Clients.”