With N50,000 only, Nigerians can have access to asset management and estate planning as UTL Trust Management Services Limited seeks to leverage technology and innovation to open up the trusteeship industry to the public.
Managing Director, UTL Trust Management Services Limited, Mrs Olufunke Aiyepola, said the firm’s award-winning platform, Willpower was the first dedicated will-writing platform in Nigeria, which provide asset owners with ease of management and transfer.
She said Willpower, which has won three awards for its ease of use, accessibility and flexibility, combines with UTL’s over five decade experience in trusteeship to provide a robust estate planning solution. Formerly Union Trustees Limited, UTL was established in 1966. It holds dual licences for trusteeship and portfolio management from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
“Our online will writing service, Willpower, has discredited the myth about Will writing. This service is encouraging the populace to tidy their affairs and protect their loved ones. Nigerians in the Diaspora can now write their Will from any part of the world and file same in Nigeria,” Aiyepola said.
She noted that UTL has over the decades provided services to all categories of persons by ensuring that its product offerings in trusts and fund and portfolio management are designed to cater for all strata of society with a thorough understanding of the peculiarity and value proportion of each segment.
Aiyepola said UTL’s affordable services were designed to protect assets and ensure seamless transfer.
“Willpower, as an estate planning solution, has been provided to ensure the completion of the financial planning cycle. It empowers adults to secure the future of their assets, family and dependents seamlessly. Whether from the comfort or privacy of the home or business place, adults can create the appropriate estate planning vehicle that meet their requirements,” Aiyepola said.
She pointed out that as a trustee, UTL’s role is that of an independent third party which protects the interests of the diverse parties by ensuring that transaction arrangements are properly documented according to the intentions of the parties, covenants are enforced, and obligations honoured as and at when due.
According to her, UTL in its 53 years of existence has been offering superior trusteeship services to both local and foreign clients. Aside from its role as trustees to bonds and collective investment schemes, the firm also provides security trustees holding security interests over assets pledged as collateral for multiple lenders or creditors in bank syndicated and club lending, trustees to various employee welfare benefits such as share trusts, profit sharing schemes and superannuation funds and trustees and executors to trusts and wills.
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“We administer several estates in Nigeria and the Diaspora and are Trustees to many trust arrangements such as education trusts, living trusts, family welfare trusts as well as other purpose specific trusts. UTL has also been appointed severally by courts in different States in Nigeria to administer disputed estates. Our members of staff are duly certified in trust and estate planning and are quite adept at rendering private trust services,” Aiyepola said.
She explained that contrary to the wrong restrictive notion of trustee services, UTL’s trusteeship services extend to several foundations and endowments, including management of scholarships from secondary to tertiary education in Nigeria as well as conduct of qualifying examinations, interviews and placements of students across the federation.
She pointed out Willpower was adjudged the best non-bank financial planning product and service in 2019 at the Banks and other Financial Institutions (BAFI) award organised by BusinessDay while the firm was also recognised as the Innovative Trustee Firm of the Year 2019 at the recently held 5th Nigeria Finance Innovation Awards 2019.
The BAFI’s Awards Review Committee stated that it decided on Willpower as a finalist because of its practical approach to solving the perennial problem faced by most Nigerians who complain of the complexity, and extensive time commitment involved in the preparation of a Will under the traditional model of face time with a lawyer or other confidante.
Aiyepola urged Nigerian employers to improve their staff welfare packages to include Willpower as part of their retirement plans and benefits, such that the issue of dependents suffering untold hardship after the demise of their breadwinner is eliminated.
She assured that UTL will remain true to its mission of being the trustee company to trust while creating an environment where corporate and natural persons utilise trust solutions for their everyday affairs.
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