Farewill CEO Dan Garrett — Revolutionizing Wills, Probates, and How We Handle Death
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In today’s episode, my guest and I dive deep into one of the two certainties in life…and no, we’re not talking about taxes.
Today’s guest is Dan Garrett, Founder and CEO of Farewill, a company on a mission to change the way we deal with death.
Farewill is a D2C online service that provides will-writing, probates, funerals, cremations, and lasting power of attorney services in the UK. They provide these services at a fraction of the cost of your local lawyers and take just 15 minutes.
In less than 5 years, Farewill has become the UK’s largest will writer, accounting for 1 in every 10 wills written. Last year, they raised 20 million pounds from an awesome list of investors including Highland Europe, the CEOs of Transferwise and Headspace, and former Wharton Fintech guests Tim Levene of Augmentum Fintech and Michael Sidgmore of Broadhaven Ventures.
You might be asking, how is this Fintech? Well, in the UK alone, $1T pounds of assets will transfer intergenerationally by 2030…and the will and probate industry will govern every penny of this transfer.
Why Focus Your Energy on Death?
While in design school at The Royal College of Art / Imperial College of London, Dan studied abroad in Japan and was tasked with making end-of-life easier for the elderly. He noticed that all everyone solved for was simpler stairs, comfier furniture, and no-slip bathrooms, but nobody was thinking about what happened after the person died and the legacy they left.
After some market research, Dan set out to build a product focused on the one thing that nobody wants to prepare for…death.
Relentlessly focused on simplicity, friendliness, cost, and ease, Farewill has an NPS of 85, which is off the charts (only 1 in every 5,000 businesses has that good of a score). They also have a near-perfect TrustPilot rating (4.9/5).
How Does Farewill Work, and How Was It Done Before?
Before getting to Farewill, let’s explore the current model.
For wills, you have to find a local lawyer or specialist. These lawyers are highly trained to deal with the most complex issues, so they are cost-prohibitive and not consumer-friendly. As Dan says, you get into this “yea maybe this is important, but I’m probably not gonna die soon, so let me wait to spend $1,000”…But then you just keep waiting.
For funerals, the draconian image in your head is the reality. You visit that funeral home you drive by every week, and in the midst of a family crisis, have to make major financial commitments (up to $20k) and decisions. Private equity firms have rolled up a lot of funeral homes, and some are even publically traded. Naturally, these companies realized the inelasticity of demand, and drove up prices while decreasing bespoke services.
People who are organizing funerals are usually in their 50’s (children of the deceased), and that generation is becoming increasingly digital. So Farewill is trying to attack the 99% of customer acquisition that happens in brick and mortar.
Now to Farewill…
For wills, Farewill offers a simple, 90-pound flat rate. You enter various bits of information and requests, and then their technology builds a custom will for you. A specialist team reviews every single will individually to ensure it makes sense, and then sends it back to the customer for final approval.
Other Farewill services are just as simple…a far cry from the old model.
I went through their will sign up process (UK only right now, took some creative liberties) and it was so easy. Like TurboTax but better, it was a string of simple Yes/No questions on my life, then it stated that if I continue, I can have my will in 12 minutes!
Why do you need a will?
If you don’t have a will, you are relying on government laws and flow charts to decide where assets go. For most, these laws don’t accurately represent what people want to happen after they die.
According to Dan, a lot of people lose access to funds and information after death. It can take the family years to track down different accounts and assets, and many are lost forever.
His most important feature of the will? Inventorying your assets! Writing down all of the accounts in your life…you don’t even put down the amounts, just the detail of the providers. Then your beneficiaries take the death certificate and grant of probate and can easily access what they were given.
The Best Thing He Saw In A Will
You’ll have to listen to the episode for that one…it starts at around 13:30 and is hysterical. It involves a #Karen…
One interesting stat — 80% of Farewill customers put in special notes and gifts in their wills, vs. the industry average of 1%!
How do you market a product that nobody wants to think about?
“We’re trying to build the first consumer brand of death.”
Their competition, the aforementioned draconian images, is just scary. So they turned the whole concept on its head. They designed Farewill with a friendly, bright yellow and started educational marketing campaigns. Check out their recent TV ad below. Makes me want a will!
They also did a partnership with rugby legend Gareth Thomas, who lost his uncle to COVID and fell in love with Farewill’s mission.
The Stunning Canary in the Coal Mine
I asked Dan what COVID must’ve been like running you know…a death company. His story left me with chills:
“The first thing we noticed [in February] was a surge in NHS emails registering for wills.” Apparently, medical workers saw the writing on the wall and were flooding Farewill with requests. That’s when Dan knew the pandemic was real. Looking to take action, Dan hired 30 people to handle the demand. Then, in a spectacular display of generosity, Farewill gave free wills to the entire NHS, totaling 10,000 wills!
I absolutely loved today’s episode, despite the rather morbid topic. There is a great rapid fire as well, including what’s in his own will. Enjoy the show.
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Leading a Public VC with Tim Levene, CEO of Augmentum FinTech
FinTech Investing with Michael Sidgmore, Partner at Broadhaven Ventures
Jackie Reses — Leadership Lessons, Fintech Innovation, & Helping Small Businesses
Did Fintech Save Minority-Owned Businesses in the PPP? With NYU’s Dr. Sabrina Howell
Noah Kerner, CEO of Acorns — Leveling the Investment Playing Field
Upending the $15B Debt Collection Industry with Ohad Samet, Founder of TrueAccord
The Future of Financial Advice with Jess Liberi, Head of Product at eMoney Advisor
Frank Rotman, Founding Partner at QED Investors — Past, Present, and Future of Fintech!
Anish Acharya, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz — Doubling Down on Fintech
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Ryan Zauk
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Ryan Zauk is an MBA Candidate at The Wharton School, where he runs the Wharton FinTech Podcast. After graduation, Ryan will join Morgan Stanley’s Menlo Park Office focused on technology. He has a passion for music, media, and all things FinTech.
You can reach him at rzauk@wharton.upenn.edu or on Twitter.
