Our Story

The Journey

So here we are, disrupting the world of estate planning. Not only is our style unique but so are many of our products. We are the first to introduce subscription packages, which we know at first may make you raise an eyebrow (huh?) which is totally okay because once you understand what is really involved with estate planning (because we are the first to explain what really goes on), then subscription becomes a no-brainer.

Today, we continue to work hard to bust common misconceptions about what happens to your stuff when you pass away. We provide Wills and estate administration packages to Kiwis directly or through employee benefits programmes.

The Beginning

In 2018, Footprint was born. Our focus was on improving financial literacy and helping change the perception that Wills are about retirement. Our aim is that in turn this will drive a behaviour change that results in more people getting their Wills earlier in life.

The Footprint experience was designed to meet the growing needs and expectations of those who prefer to connect via digital channels, look for products and services that provide a lifetime of value, and want to engage with companies that believe in giving back.

With a tricky topic at hand, we decided to take a different approach to offering Wills by sticking to our core value of “keeping it real” and making this challenging topic light-hearted and easy to understand. We specifically wanted to separate ourselves from the traditional dark, gloomy and almost taboo reputation of Wills and estate planning. By keeping our language understandable and our messaging relatable we believe we can encourage more conversations and more action, which results in less people going through undue stress and hardship at an already difficult time.

The Idea

Back in 2014, Perpetual Guardian, one of New Zealand’s most recognised trustee companies broke with tradition and started offering customers the option to do their Wills online. Research conducted at the time had shown that 15% of those surveyed were open to digital. However, by 2018 this had increased to 82%. Recognising that providing online services was radically different from the traditional face-to-face approach and that specialised technical and digital expertise needed its own dedicated environment a new innovative business was created.