Inherit Australia - Where We Are and How We Got Here

By: Rafael Cohen ⛯ Inherit Australia co-fonder, Tech

While Chris is enjoying a well-earned break in sunny Queensland, we thought it was a good time to pause the estate planning case studies and reflect on the journey of Inherit—how it started, how far we have come, and why we believe the best is yet to come.

The story begins almost a decade ago, with a JV partner of Facts Online introducing us to Chris Hill, a forward-thinking, tech-savvy lawyer who was always looking for ways to make his legal practice more efficient.

Our first collaboration was simple in concept but ambitious in scope: build an estate planning e-form into the existing Facts Online platform. We already had a developer working on e-forms, and after a few months of back and forth, we had a working version. It generated a basic Will and Testamentary Trust as a Word document. Soon after, we added EPOAs. Chris began the long compliance journey with his then-licensee, Securitor (RIP), and Westpac.

But just as we got platform approval, the Royal Commission into financial services hit. Banks rapidly distanced themselves from financial advice, and the project was paused. Chris continued using it in his practice and with a handful of advisers, but it was clear we needed to pivot.

That pivot became Inherit.

We interviewed advisers and asked what held them back from estate planning. The answers were surprisingly consistent:

1. “I do not want to give legal advice.”

2. “I do not know how to run the estate planning process.”

3. “There is no money in it.”

Then came COVID. Amid lockdowns and long drives to escape the Melbourne curfew, the vision crystallised. Inherit needed to be its own platform—independent from Hill Legal and supported by a network of lawyers to provide national coverage.

We started by mapping out the estate planning process. Chris’s 30+ years of experience became the foundation for what we now describe as a deterministic expert system. It guides the adviser through structured conversations with their clients, asking all the right questions (and none of the wrong ones), without ever straying into the territory of legal advice.

From there, we turned our attention to infrastructure and workflow. Our partnership with Microsoft Azure has been critical. Leveraging cutting-edge cloud technologies like Azure Functions, Front Door, Redis, and Service Bus has kept us ahead of the curve, while also inheriting the robust security of the Azure environment.

But at every stage, our goal has been consistent: Empower advisers and lawyers to use their true superpowers—human connection, empathy, and legal insight—to craft the right solution for clients in this critical area of life.

As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes part of daily life, we believe this human-centred approach will become more important, not less. Some online Will providers have gone fully digital and offer quick, cheap services. But their models are often riddled with conflicts of interest, including hidden fees for beneficiaries, referral commissions from charities, and bundled administration services.

At Inherit, we believe in a fee-for-service estate planning model - no hidden executor fees, no backend commissions, and no conflicts. Like many industries undergoing digital transformation, we aim to retain the best of the old while embracing the best of the new. The “baby” we refuse to throw out with the bathwater is the care and attention each adviser and lawyer provides to ensure families are not left paying the price, in fees, in litigation, or in fractured relationships.

Our platform continues to evolve with daily feedback from the field. More advisers and lawyers are joining every month. As we continue to build, the core remains the same: clarity, structure, and support, for professionals and for every family they serve.

For advisers and lawyers who want to join our camp, drop us a line here or visit our website at https://www.inheritaustralia.com.au