1. Website Privacy Policy
  2. Customer Privacy Policy

Website Privacy Policy

Who are we?

In this Policy, references to “we”, “us”, or “Farewill” are references to Farewill Limited, Farewill Funerals Limited, Farewill Legal Services Limited and Farewill Trustees Limited. Farewill Ltd and all of its group companies will have access to personal data covered by this policy.

Farewill Ltd, is a company registered in England and Wales under company registration number 09701947. Our registered office at 27 Downham Road, N1 5AA, UK is the data controller of your personal data, and is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. We are registered as a data controller with the Information Commissioner’s Office under number ZA258663.

About this policy

This Policy (together with our terms and conditions) sets out the basis on which we will process any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us. We have an additional Customer Privacy Policy for our customers. Please read the following Policy carefully to understand how we will collect and treat your personal data.

For the purposes of data protection laws in the UK, the data controller is Farewill Ltd. We are registered as a data controller with the Information Commissioner’s Office under number ZA258663.

If you have any questions regarding the contents of this Privacy Policy, please contact [email protected].

Whose personal data do we collect?

Personal data is any information which can (or could be used to) identify a living person.

This Privacy Policy covers our practices when using the personal data of:

  1. Individuals who have a business relationship with us, such as our suppliers and charity partners (“business contacts”)
  2. Individuals who may visit our websites or social media sites
  3. Individuals who are executors, trustees, points of contact or beneficiaries named in the context of the provision of our products and services, where this is not otherwise covered by our Customer Privacy Policy

Where do we collect your information from?

Directly from you: we may collect your personal data when you access our website and social media sites, communicate with us in the course of our business relationship, or otherwise through our normal communication channels.

From third parties, such as other organisations or our customers: your information may be shared with us by other third parties. For example, if you work for one of our suppliers, they may provide us with your personal information. If you are an executor, trustee, point of contact or beneficiary, our customers may provide us with your name and contact information.

From publicly available sources: we may collect information from public sources, including:

  1. Information which is publicly available on social media platforms such as X/Twitter or Facebook, for example, content that you have posted on our pages or where you have interacted with our accounts. Please also review the privacy policies of the social media sites and ensure your privacy settings are up-to-date.
  2. Information which is widely available in the public domain such as newspaper articles; the contents of Google searches; other websites such as company websites of our suppliers; Companies House and the Land Registry.
  3. Information which is collected when you visit our websites and social media pages. We collect technical information from your computer or device such as IP address, and we also collect data via cookies and similar technologies. Please see our Cookies Policy for more information.

We may combine your personal data from one or more of these sources for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy.

What personal information do we collect and how do we use it

We will collect and process the following data about you:

For our business contacts:

Information we collect about our business contacts includes:

  • Basic identifiers such as name, surname, date of birth, age, gender and job title
  • Contact details such as address, email and telephone number
  • Financial and transactional information including bank account and payment card details (for example, for payments made to suppliers)
  • Communications with our business contacts
  • Information from public sources such as your company webpages or social media
  • Any further information that you have given us, for example through accessing our website

How we use the personal information of our business contacts:

  • To provide our services to our customers and to ensure the smooth and efficient running of the business operations of Farewill
  • When we are deciding whether to enter into a partnership with any particular charity or organisation
  • To build our relationships with suitable suppliers and partners
  • To fulfil any transactions, process payments and to keep our financial records updated
  • To carry out audits of our records and to administer our accounts
  • To ensure the security of our systems and premises
  • To comply with our contractual, legal and regulatory obligations
  • In the event that we buy or sell any business or assets, in which case we will disclose your personal data to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets (at all times in accordance with all applicable data protection laws); or if Farewill Ltd or substantially all of its assets are acquired by a third party, in which case personal data held by Farewill about its customers will be one of the assets transferred to the purchaser

Our legal basis for processing the personal information of our business contacts:

  • Where processing is necessary for the performance of a contract with a supplier or partner who is an individual or sole trader (or to take steps prior to entering into the contract)
  • Where it is necessary to comply with legal requirements (such as where we have obligations to share information with HMRC for VAT or other tax reasons)
  • Where processing is necessary for our legitimate interests (or a third party’s). Where we rely on this legal basis, we have to consider whether our legitimate interests are outweighed by your rights and interests in your personal data. We have the following legitimate interests to use your information:
    • The running of our business and pursuing our business objectives
    • Providing our services to our customers through our suppliers
    • Building relationships with our customers and partners
    • Ensuring the security of our premises and systems

If you require further information on our legitimate interests, please contact us by sending an email to [email protected]

For our website and social media users:

Information we collect about our website and social media site users includes:

  • Personal data collected in the course of browsing our website and social media pages by our cookies and similar technologies (see Cookies Policy)
  • Personal data provided in the content of communications posted through our contact forms and on our social media pages
  • Technical information, including the Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the Internet, your login information, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform
  • Information about your visit, including the full Uniform Resource Locators (URL), clickstream to, through and from our Website (including date and time), products you viewed or searched for, page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs), methods used to browse away from the page, and any phone number used to call our customer service number

How we use the personal information of our website and social media site users:

  • To make our website more secure
  • To administer our website and for internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research and statistical and survey purposes
  • To monitor and ensure the smooth running of our Farewill website
  • To monitor activity about us on social media sites, including to respond to questions, complaints and feedback
  • To perform statistical analysis to monitor and improve the website user experience
  • To ensure the security of our website and network systems
  • To comply with our contractual, legal and regulatory obligations
  • In the event that we buy or sell any business or assets, in which case we will disclose your personal data to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets (at all times in accordance with all applicable data protection laws); or if Farewill Ltd or substantially all of its assets are acquired by a third party, in which case personal data held by Farewill about its customers will be one of the assets transferred to the purchaser

Our legal basis for processing the personal information of our website and social media site users:

  • Where it is necessary to comply with legal obligations for example, reporting criminal activity on our website
  • Where processing is necessary for our legitimate interests (or a third party’s). Where we rely on this legal basis, we have to consider whether our legitimate interests are outweighed by your rights and interests in your personal data. We have the following legitimate interests to use your information:
    • Conducting analysis on visitor numbers and profiles to better understand our customer demographics and use of our website
    • Optimising website visitor engagement and informing future content
    • Monitoring and investigating any security risks to our website
    • Managing the public profile of Farewill through the social media sites and responding promptly to any questions, complaints or feedback

If you require further information on our legitimate interests, please contact us by sending an email to [email protected]

For executors, trustees, points of contact and beneficiaries:

Information we collect about executors, trustees, points of contact and beneficiaries includes:

  • Basic identifiers such as name, surname, date of birth, age and gender
  • Contact details such as address, email and telephone number
  • Communications with executors, trustees and beneficiaries
  • Public domain information, such as company website information if you are a professional trustee or executor
  • Any further information that you have given us, for example through accessing our website
  • Any further information that our customer has given us

How we use the personal information of executors, trustees, points of contact and beneficiaries:

  • To contact executors, trustees, points of contact and/or beneficiaries in the context of the provision of our products and services, where this is not otherwise covered by our Customer Privacy Policy
  • To respond to queries, complaints and feedback from executors, trustees, points of contact and beneficiaries
  • To comply with our legal obligations (including those arising under contracts) and to deal with any legal claims
  • In the event that we buy or sell any business or assets, in which case we will disclose your personal data to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets (at all times in accordance with all applicable data protection laws); or if Farewill Ltd or substantially all of its assets are acquired by a third party, in which case personal data held by Farewill will be one of the assets transferred to the purchaser

Our legal basis for processing the personal information of information of executors, trustees, points of contact and beneficiaries:

  • Where processing is necessary for the performance of a contract (or to take steps before entering into the contract)
  • Where it is necessary to comply with legal or regulatory requirements (such as where we have obligations to share information with law enforcement agencies where we suspect there has been fraud)
  • Where processing is necessary for our legitimate interests (or a third party’s). Where we rely on this legal basis, we have to consider whether our legitimate interests are outweighed by your rights and interests in your personal data. We have the following legitimate interests to use your information:
    • Providing the services that our customers have requested, which involves contacting the nominated executors, trustees, points of contact and beneficiaries
    • Improving our services, including responding to queries, complaints and feedback
    • The running of our business and pursuing our business objectives
    • Ensuring the security of our premises and systems

If you require further information on our legitimate interests, please contact us by sending an email to [email protected]

Diversity data: We do not actively seek to collect diversity data, (also known as ‘special category data’). You will never be obliged to provide diversity data (for example ethnicity, sexual orientation or religion) and providing us with that type of information is your choice. However, in some cases diversity data may be inferred in the circumstances, such as sexual orientation from relationship status and religious and philosophical beliefs through any details of funeral arrangements. We will also occasionally process health information for customers who lack capacity. We may also collect sensitive data which is not diversity data, such as details of children under 18 and vulnerable adults.

In all cases, we will process this information strictly in order to provide the product or services that you have requested and not for any other purpose, and on a legal basis which complies with UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

Who will my personal information be shared with

We will share your personal information with third parties, including:

  • Farewill staff and contractors
  • Third party suppliers, including those who provide IT systems and other forms of technical support and assistance, such as third parties who maintain our website and social media sites
  • Professional advisers, such as our auditors and lawyers
  • Third parties that are involved with our provision of funeral services, such as our partner Dignity, medical practitioners such as the deceased’s doctor, hospitals, coroners and care homes
  • Third parties that are involved in provision of our probate services, such as solicitors who accept referrals and estate and property agents
  • Third parties who help us to identify areas where we can improve our services, such as analysing feedback on external review platforms
  • Public bodies such as HMRC, courts, regulators, government bodies and police authorities where required or requested by law, or where we consider it necessary
  • If we are defending a legal claim, your personal information may be transferred in relation to the claim
  • If we are discussing the sale of any assets, the information may be shared with prospective buyers under appropriate confidentiality terms (and transferred to a buyer if the sale is successful).

Our use of anonymised data sets:

Anonymised data is information which cannot be used to identify a living person. It is useful for statistical analysis and identifying general trends. It is not personal data. We will convert your personal data into an anonymised format for our internal use and for press publication (for instance to show the age range of our customers and/or visitors to our websites, or geographical areas where we provide a high volume of service).

We may use your personal information to generate aggregated, anonymised data for internal reporting, customised marketing content, insight and analysis. This will enable us to improve and personalise our website, the products we offer and search results for our website. As part of this we use Google Analytics (including Google Signals). For further information, see Google’s Privacy and Terms.

Are there any legal requirements to provide personal information

In certain circumstances where you do not provide personal information that is required, we will not be able to perform our obligations under a contract with you or provide you with services. For example, if you do not provide information to a prospective purchaser, they may not be able to continue to provide services to you. We will try to make it clear whenever this situation arises and what the consequences of not providing the information will be for you.

Where we hold personal data

All information you provide to us is stored on secure servers. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our Website, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. You must not share your password with anyone.

We do use third party suppliers to manage our IT systems, including cloud services providers. Your information will therefore be transferred outside of the United Kingdom, for example, to the United States. Where we transfer your personal information outside of the United Kingdom we will make sure that safeguards are in place, such as the International Data Transfer Agreement available from the ICO website here.

If you would like more information on our data transfers and the safeguards we have in place for your data, please contact us for further information.

How long we store your personal data for

We will retain any personal data that you provide and documents that you have created using the Document Preparation Service in electronic form for as long as is necessary for us to provide the relevant service and for our own legal and administrative purposes. If your data is required for a legal dispute, it will be held until the dispute is resolved.

Due to the nature of the services and in accordance with Article 17(3) GDPR, if you complete a will using our service we will securely store your data indefinitely. This is to protect against legal claims (for example in the case of suspected fraud), as well as to provide supporting information if your will is ever contested. You can also ask us to delete your data (make a data deletion request) in certain circumstances, see the section ‘Your rights under data protection laws’ below.

Where we have processed your personal data to provide you with marketing communications with your consent, we may contact you at least every 12 months to ensure you are happy to continue receiving such communications. If you tell us that you would like to stop receiving them, we will remove your personal data from our list.

Your rights under data protection laws

Right to object

You have the right to ask us to stop processing your personal data based on our legitimate interests (as set out above). If you do ask us to stop, we will, unless we can demonstrate compelling grounds to continue in accordance with data protection laws. You also have the right to object to us processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes at any time.

Right of access

You have the right to receive confirmation as to whether we are using your personal data, and ask us for information about how we are using it. . You also have the right to access your personal data which we are processing.

Right to rectification

You have the right to ask us to rectify any inaccurate personal data we hold about you. You also have the right to have incomplete personal data we hold about you completed, by providing a supplementary statement to us.

Right to restriction

You have the right to restrict our processing of your personal data where: you are contesting the accuracy of the personal data; our processing of your personal data is unlawful, but you do not want the relevant personal data erased; we no longer need to process your personal data for the agreed purposes, but you want to preserve your personal data for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims; or we are processing your data on the basis of our legitimate interest (as set out above) and you:

  • object to our processing on this basis; and
  • want processing of the relevant personal data to be restricted until it can be determined whether our legitimate interest overrides your legitimate interest.

If you choose to exercise your right to restriction and it determines that we should restrict our processing of your personal data, then we will only process the relevant personal data with your consent, and, in addition, for storage and any legal claims.

Right to data portability

You have the right to receive your personal data in structured, standard machine readable format and the right to transmit such personal data to another controller.

Right to erasure

You have the right to ask us to erase your personal data which we are processing where at least one of the following grounds applies: the processing is no longer necessary in relation to the purposes for which your personal data were collected or otherwise processed; our processing of your personal data is based on your consent, you have subsequently withdrawn your consent and there is no other legal ground we can use to process your personal data; you object to the processing as set out in the “right to object” section of this policy and we have no overriding legitimate interest for our processing; the personal data have been unlawfully processed; and the erasure is required for compliance with a law to which we are subject.

Right to Withdraw Consent

If you have given us consent to process your data, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time by contacting usThis includes the right to ask us to stop using your personal information for marketing purposes, where applicable.

If you have any concerns or queries relating to the use of your personal data, please let us know by contacting [email protected] and we would hope to resolve any issue informally.

However, if an issue cannot be resolved, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office, the supervisory authority for data protection issues in England and Wales. For further information, please see https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/.

Exercising your rights

You can exercise such rights by contacting us at [email protected]. We may ask for confirmation of your identity before acting on your request.

Links on our website

Our website may, from time to time, contain links to and from the websites of our partner networks and affiliates. Our service connects you to different websites. If you follow a link to any of these websites or use our service, please note that you have left our website and these websites have their own privacy policies. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies or websites. Please check these policies before you submit any personal data to these websites.

Changes to our privacy policy

Any changes we make to our Website Privacy Policy in the future will be posted on this page. Please check back frequently to see any updates or changes to our privacy policy. If we make any significant changes and we have your contact details, we’ll email you to let you know.

Cookies

Our Website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our Website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our Website and also allows us to improve our Website. Please see our Cookie Policy for further details.

Customer Privacy Policy

Farewill Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales under company registration number 09701947 with our registered office at 27 Downham Road, N1 5AA, UK is the data controller of your personal data and is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.

In this Policy, references to “we”, “us”, or “Farewill” are references to Farewill Limited, Farewill Funerals Limited, Farewill Legal Services Limited and Farewill Trustees Limited. Farewill Ltd and all of its group companies will have access to personal data covered by this policy.

This Policy (together with our terms and conditions https://farewill.com/terms) sets out the basis on which any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us, will be processed by us. Please read the following carefully to understand our practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it.

We also have a Website Privacy Policy which applies to individuals who may visit our websites or social media sites.

For the purposes of data protection laws in the UK, the data controller is Farewill Ltd. We are registered as a data controller with the Information Commissioner’s Office under number ZA258663. If you have any questions regarding the contents of the Customer Privacy Policy, please contact [email protected].

1. Whose personal data do we collect?

Personal data is any information which can (or could be used to) identify a living person.

This Customer Privacy Policy covers our practices when using the personal data of:

  1. Individuals who are potential or current customers for one of our products (e.g. Online Wills, Telephone Wills, Probate, Funerals, Funeral Plans).
  2. Individuals whose personal data is provided by our customers for one of our products, including executors, trustees or beneficiaries named in the context of the provision of our products and services.

This does not include the personal information of the deceased, who are not covered by data protection law in the UK.

2. Where do we collect your information from?

Directly from you: We may collect your personal data when you create an account and sign up for a product through our website or over the phone, communicate with us in the course of our relationship with you as a customer, or otherwise through our normal communication channels.

From third parties such as other organisations or our customers: your information may be shared with us by other third parties, for example through our partnerships with charities and other organisations, if you have requested for your data to be shared (e.g. to redeem a voucher). Your name and contact information may be provided to us by our customers if you are an executor, trustee or beneficiary.

From publicly available sources: we may collect information from public sources including:

  1. Information which is publicly available on social media platforms such as X/Twitter or Facebook (for example, where you have interacted with our accounts to make a complaint, data rights request or to provide feedback). Please also review the privacy policies of the social media sites and ensure your privacy settings are up-to-date.
  2. Information which is widely available in the public domain such as newspaper articles; the content of Google searches; other websites such as company websites of our suppliers; Companies House and the Land Registry.

We may combine your personal data from one or more of these sources for the purposes set out in this Customer Privacy Policy.

3. What personal data do we collect and what purposes do we collect it for?

We collect personal data both directly from you and third parties, as listed above. Both the exact types of personal data, and the purposes for which we use them will vary, depending on the service we provide to you.

The personal data which we will collect and process about you includes:

ProductWhat types of data will be collectedWhat will the data be used for?
Online wills
  • Basic identifiers including name, surname, date of birth, age, gender
  • Contact details such as address, email address, telephone numbers
  • Payment information ie credit / debit card details
  • Relationship status
  • Financial assets including:
    • properties owned, how they are owned and who with (including their full legal name and address if different to any previously mentioned), value of property and mortgage(s) remaining.
    • Bank and building society accounts, name(s) on account, value of account, how the account is held.
    • Information on and value of personal possessions.
    • Information on and value of vehicles owned.
    • Information on and value of shares and investments owned.
    • Name, value and description of any partnerships or businesses owned (including agreements in place, their role in the business and anything else deemed relevant).
    • Information on and value of life insurance policies (including if these are written into trust and the beneficiaries).
    • Information on and value of pension policies (including if these are written into trust and the beneficiaries).
    • Information on and value of death in service benefit (including if these are written into trust and the beneficiaries).
    • Details and value of any assets held overseas.
  • Beneficiaries’ and executors details including names, dates of birth, addresses, email addresses and telephone numbers.
  • Family details including dates of birth, addresses, email addresses and telephone numbers.
  • Technical information including IP address, login details, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in type and versions, operating system and platform
  • Information about your website visit including URL, clickstream to, through and from our Website (including date and time), products you viewed or searched for, page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information, methods used to browse away from the page
  • Personal data collected in the course of browsing our website and social media pages by our cookies and similar technologies (see Cookies Policy)
  • Recordings of phone calls
To enter into a contract with you to provide the service requested (as set out in our terms and conditions)

To respond to enquiries about our services.

To enable us to contact you in relation to our services.

To take payment from you for provision of our services.

For our legal and regulatory record-keeping and compliance purposes.

Telephone wills
  • Basic identifiers including name, surname, date of birth, age, gender
  • Contact details such as address, email address, telephone numbers
  • Nationality
  • Country of origin and domicile
  • Marital status of parents at birth and parents permanent place of living at your birth
  • Payment information i.e. debit / credit card details
  • Relationship status
  • Employment information including occupation, job role and description, employer.
  • Partner’s name, date of birth, address, email address and phone number
  • Guardian’s names, addresses, dates of birth, email addresses and phone numbers
  • Financial assets including:
    • Properties owned, how they are owned and who with (including their full legal name and address if different to any previously mentioned), value of property and mortgage(s) remaining.
    • Bank and building society accounts, name(s) on account, value of account, how the account is held.
    • Information on and value of personal possessions.
    • Information and value of vehicles owned.
    • Information on and value of shares and investments owned.
    • Name, value and description of any partnerships or businesses owned (including agreements in place, their role in the business and anything else deemed relevant).
    • Information on and value of life insurance policies (including if these are written into trust and the beneficiaries).
    • Information on and value of pension policies (including if these are written into trust and the beneficiaries).
    • Information on and value of death in service benefit (including if these are written into trustand the beneficiaries).
    • Details and value of any assets held overseas.
  • Beneficiaries’ names, relationship to you, dates of birth, email address, home address. These details can also include whether the beneficiary is in receipt of benefits, vulnerable, or living with a disability.
  • Executors’ names, relationship to you, dates of birth, email addresses and home addresses.
  • Family details including dates of birth, addresses, email addresses and telephone numbers.
  • Trustees’ details including names, relationship to you, dates of birth, email addresses and home addresses.
  • Health information in instances where you may lack capacity
  • Recordings of phone calls
To enter into a contract with you to provide the service requested (as set out in our terms and conditions)

To respond to enquiries about our services.

To enable us to contact you in relation to our services.

To take payment from you for provision of our services.

For our legal and regulatory record-keeping and compliance purposes.

Funerals
  • Basic identifiers including name, surname, age, marital status, gender
  • Contact details such as address, email address, telephone numbers
  • Point of contact for arranging the funeral, including name and contact details (if different from above)
  • Family details including names, relationship to the deceased and to you, addresses, email addresses and telephone numbers
  • GP details (or the deceased’s normal medical practitioner) including name, address and telephone number
  • Medical professional details of the last two doctors to attend the deceased
  • Executors’ names, relationship to you, dates of birth, email addresses and home addresses
  • Designated person for collecting ashes following direct cremation, including name and contact details
  • Religious beliefs if relevant to the funeral service
  • Payment information i.e. debit / credit card details
  • For DWP claimants: National Insurance number, claimant’s name, claimant’s address, deceased’s name
  • If you make an enquiry / request a quote online, we collect technical information including IP address, login details, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in type and versions, operating system and platform, information about your website visit including URL, clickstream to, through and from our Website (including date and time), products you viewed or searched for, page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information, methods used to browse away from the page
  • Personal data collected in the course of browsing our website and social media pages by our cookies and similar technologies (see Cookies Policy) Recordings of phone calls
To enter into a contract with you to arrange a funeral.

To respond to enquiries about our services for arranging funerals.

To enable us to refer you to our direct cremation and funeral partners, such as our partner Dignity plc, who are a separate data controller. Please refer to their privacy policy.

To ensure we can calculate an accurate quote for arranging a funeral.

To ensure you have the right to arrange a funeral on behalf of the deceased.

To enable us to contact you in relation to the funeral arrangements.

To take payment from you for the provision of the funeral arrangement service.

For our legal and regulatory record-keeping and compliance purposes.

Funeral Plans
  • Basic identifiers including title, name, surname, date of birth, age, gender
  • Contact details such as address, email address, telephone numbers
  • Payment information ie credit / debit card details
  • Details relating to a customer’s vulnerabilities (with their consent)
  • Personal details of a Nominated Representative (if they want one), including name, surname, phone number, email address and address
  • Recordings of phone calls.
To enter into a funeral plan contract with you for the purposes of arranging a funeral.

To respond to enquiries about our funeral plan services.

To make reasonable adjustments for someone who needs them.

So we can send the Nominated Representative details of the funeral plan.

To ensure we can contact you in relation to the funeral plan.

To take payments from you in relation to the funeral plan.

For our legal and regulatory record-keeping and compliance purposes.

Probate
  • Basic identifiers including name, surname, date of birth, age, gender
  • Contact details such as address, email address, telephone numbers
  • ID documents i.e. copy passport or driving licence, which include DOB (note if utility bills provided as ID and there are other people alongside the contact who pay the bill, we may inadvertently receive their personal data also (name, address))
  • Contact information for nominated points of contact, co-executors, co-owners of the deceased person's jointly owned assets, guardians, trustees and beneficiaries including name, date of birth, address, email address, telephone numbers and relationship to the person who has died
  • Other family information relevant to the estate including benefit entitlement, whether the beneficiary is in receipt of benefits, vulnerable, or living with a disability
  • In the case of minor beneficiaries, contact details of their legal guardian’s / those with parental responsibility
  • Contact details of a personal creditor who loaned money to the deceased or the details of someone who received gifts (Potentially Exempt Transfer and Gift of Reservation of Benefit) from the deceased before they died (name/ address/ email/ telephone/ DOB)
  • Contact details of who is holding the keys to the property / occupying the property / storing the original will
  • Name/ address of co-owners of property in the event of property title deed searches
  • Name/address of joint account holders or trust beneficiaries of the deceased in the course of searches
  • Details of any persons disputing the will or intending to make a claim against the deceased person’s estate, including name, address, relationship to the deceased
  • Recordings of phone calls
To provide guidance on the administration of an estate

To enable us to refer you to our subsidiary, Farewill Legal Services Limited or to one of our external legal partners for our probate services.

To respond to any enquiries about our probate services.

For our legal and regulatory record-keeping and compliance purposes.

In relation to all services set out above, we will process data from our customer contact with you, including enquiries, requests for technical support and feedback for the purpose of providing the product or service that you have requested and for marketing purposes, where relevant.

Diversity data: We do not actively seek to collect special category data and you will never be obliged to provide diversity data (e.g. ethnicity, sexual orientation or religion) and providing it is your free choice. However, in some cases diversity data (also known as ‘special category data’) may be inferred in the circumstances, such as sexual orientation from relationship status and religious and philosophical beliefs through any details of funeral arrangements. We will also occasionally process health information for customers who lack capacity.

We may also collect sensitive data which is not diversity data, such as details of children under 18 and vulnerable adults.

In all cases, we will process this information strictly in order to provide the product or services that you have requested and not for any other purpose, and on a legal basis which complies with UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

4. What is our basis for processing your personal data?

Broadly, your data will be processed on one of the following legal bases:

  1. You have provided your consent;
  2. It is necessary for the performance of the contract with you (or to take steps to enter into the contract);
  3. It is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation;
  4. It is necessary for the purposes of our legitimate interests or those of a third party, so long as those interests are not outweighed by your rights and interests.

Further detail on this is set out below:

  • To enter into and perform contracts with you: Where you ask us to provide services to you, we will process your personal data to provide these services to you. We need certain personal information about you to provide the services to you. We may also share your information with other Farewill companies in order to provide services to you. If you do not wish to provide us with your personal data in this way, you will be unable to use our services.

  • To provide services to you: We use a number of third party service providers to help us provide our services. In order to do this, we may have to provide some of your information to them and we will only ever do this to the extent necessary to provide services to you under your contract and only when we have contractual provisions in place to ensure your information is securely held and not used for any other purpose.

  • To improve how we provide our services: We have a legitimate interest to analyse personal data to identify areas so that we can improve our services and we sometimes engage third parties to assist us with this analysis. Some examples are:

    • Recording calls to analyse and improve how we provide our services over the phone.
    • Analysing feedback you provide on external review platforms, on our website chat function or in emails and the way you interact with our services.
  • To make our website better: We will also process your personal data in order to provide you with a more tailored experience when you visit our website. For example, we may use your personal data to tailor our website, make sure it is displayed in the most effective way for the device you are using. We also use various third party cookies to help us improve our website (more details are set out in the sections below) but we will not share your personal data with the third party analytics and search engine providers that assist us in the improvement and optimisation of our website.

    We will also process your personal data for the purposes of making our website more secure, and to administer our website and for internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research and statistical and survey purposes.

    The legal basis on which we process your personal data in these circumstances is our legitimate interests to optimise website visitor engagement, inform future content and to ensure that our website is kept secure.

  • For user research: We have a legitimate interest to contact you in relation to your experience of using our products and services. We will use any feedback provided to tailor and improve our services. We may also conduct research to develop new products and services where input from users' experience would inform our approach.

  • For Farewill marketing purposes: We may contact you if you have given consent to receive marketing communications (including emails, SMS and post) from us, or if you have bought a product or service from us and unless you have already indicated that you do not wish to receive marketing communications from us. In the latter case, our legal basis will be our legitimate interests to market our products and services.

    We also process your personal data to form a view on what services, promotions or offers we think you may be interested in on the basis of our legitimate interests.

    We may also send you postal marketing or call you on the basis of our legitimate interests.

    Our communications always include a link so you can unsubscribe. You can also let us know you would prefer not to be contacted by emailing [email protected] and clearly stating that you wish to be removed from our marketing list.

  • To allow charities to communicate with you: We sometimes ask you if you are happy to receive marketing communications from the charity whose discount code you used (for example, they have referred you to our services and you have left the charity a gift in your will). If you agree and provide your consent, we send the charity your personal data so they can contact you directly. Where you change your mind and decide you would prefer not to be contacted by the charity, you should let them know (their communication should also contain an unsubscribe link).

  • To allow our charity partners to analyse and optimise their legacy campaigns and to update their supporter databases: We will share some basic information relating to you (name, address, email address, date of birth, phone number), userID, gift type (including inheritance precedence, such as whether the gift is primary or secondary) and gift amount bracket (if any), to allow our charity partners to assess and improve their legacy campaigns and update their supporter databases. This may include basic information about whether you have redeemed a voucher (and if you have, we will share the voucher code details); completed or not completed a will (if you have, we will share the date that your first will was passed) and whether or not a gift was left to the charity partner. We will rely upon our legitimate interests to build our relationships with our charity partners and assess the success of our campaigns and products.

  • To enable tracking and attribution of referrals and campaigns from our commercial partners: Where you have been referred by one of our commercial partners we will share some basic information relating to you (name, address, email address, date of birth, phone number) to allow our commercial partners to attribute referrals. This will be in addition to your communication preferences and this information will not be used for marketing purposes if you have not given consent for that purpose. We will rely upon our legitimate interests to build our relationships with our charity partners and assess the success of our campaigns and products.

  • If our business is sold: We will transfer your personal data to a third party. In the event that we buy or sell any business or assets, in which case we will disclose your personal data to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets (at all times in accordance with all applicable data protection laws); or if Farewill or substantially all of its assets are acquired by a third party, in which case personal data held by Farewill about its customers will be one of the assets transferred to the purchaser. In each case, the legal basis on which we process your personal data in these circumstances is our legitimate interests to ensure our business can be continued by a purchaser. If you object to our use of your data in this way, the relevant seller or buyer of our business may not be able to provide services to you.

Our use of anonymised data sets: Anonymised data is information which cannot be used to identify a living person. It is useful for statistical analysis and identifying general trends. We will convert your personal data into an anonymised format so it can be used for our internal use and for press publication (for instance to show the age range of our customers and/or visitors to our websites, or geographical areas where we provide a high volume of service). Anonymised data is not personal data.

We may use your personal information to generate aggregated, anonymised data for the purposes of internal reporting, customised marketing content, insight and analysis. This will enable us to improve and personalise our website, the products we offer and search results for our website. As part of this we use Google Analytics (including Google Signals). For further information, see Google’s Privacy and Terms.

We process data and share it with charity partners anonymously in order to help them raise money through gifts in wills. We share the number and size of gifts left to particular charities, as well as generalized demographic information in order to help charity partners understand the efficacy of their legacy marketing efforts while maintaining your privacy.

5. Are there any legal requirements to provide personal information?

In certain circumstances, where you do not provide personal information that is required, we will not be able to perform our obligations under a contract with you or provide you with services. For example, if you do not provide information to a prospective purchaser of our business, they may not be able to continue to provide services to you. We will try to make it clear whenever this situation arises and what the consequences of not providing the information will be for you.

6. Who do we share your personal data with?

We may share your personal data with a limited number of third parties, as follows:

  • Farewill staff and contractors
  • Our wills partnerships, who may also have access to some demographic data (DOB, age, marital status, no of children, basic identifiers and contact details).
  • Third parties that are involved with our provision of funeral services, such as our partner Dignity, medical practitioners such as the deceased’s GP, hospitals, coroners and care homes
  • Third parties that are involved in provision of our probate services, such as solicitors who accept referrals and estate and property agents
  • Third parties who provide us with IT services, such as our suppliers of cloud data services, document signing, telephone call recording, training resources, invoicing, payment services, performance monitoring and analytics services and the provider of our helpdesk services
  • Our professional advisers (such as auditors, lawyers)
  • Public authorities such as HMRC, DWP, the Probate Registry, courts, regulators and law enforcement when required by law or when we consider it necessary
  • If we are defending a legal claim, your personal information may be transferred in relation to such a claim

7. Where will my personal data be held?

All information you provide to us is stored on secure servers. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our Website, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. You must not share your password with anyone.

We use third party suppliers to manage our IT systems, including cloud services providers. Your information will therefore be transferred outside of the United Kingdom, for example, to the United States. Where we transfer your personal information outside of the United Kingdom, we will make sure that safeguards are in place, such as the ICO’s International Data Transfer Agreement which is available from the ICO website here.

If you would like more information on our data transfers and the safeguards we have in place for your data, please contact us for further information.

8. How long will my personal data be held for?

We will retain personal data that you provide and documents that you have created using the Document Preparation Service in electronic form for as long as is necessary for us to provide the relevant service and for our own legal and administrative purposes. If your data is required for a legal dispute, it will be held until the dispute is resolved.

Due to the nature of the services and pursuant to Article 17(3) GDPR, if you complete a will using our service, we will securely store your data for as long as it may be required for resolving potential legal issues. This is in order to protect against legal claims (for example in the case of suspected fraud), as well as to provide supporting information if your will is ever contested. You can also make a data deletion request in certain circumstances, see ‘what rights do I have’ section below.

Where we have processed your personal data to provide you with marketing communications with your consent, we may contact you at least every 12 months to ensure you are happy to continue receiving such communications. If you tell us that you no longer wish to receive such communications, your personal data will be removed from our list.

9. What rights do I have?

You have certain rights as a data subject, please see our Website Privacy Policy for further details.

Exercising your rights

You can exercise such rights by contacting us at [email protected]. We may require confirmation of your identity before acting on a request.

If you have any concerns or queries relating to the use of your personal data, please let us know in the first instance by contacting [email protected] and we would hope to resolve any issue informally.

However, if an issue cannot be resolved, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office, the supervisory authority for data protection issues in England and Wales. For further information, please see https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/.

Changes to our privacy policy

Any changes we make to our privacy policy in the future will be posted on this page. Please check back frequently to see any updates or changes to our privacy policy. We will inform you of any significant changes to this policy.