Wills & Family
Who should I choose as executor if I don’t trust my family?
Not everyone has a relative they would trust to handle their estate. Here is how to think about other options, from friends to professional executors.
Who we are
WillHarbour ("we", "us") is an independent introduction service for Wills, probate, trusts, Lasting Powers of Attorney and estate planning in England and Wales. We are the controller of the personal information described in this notice.
[Company details to be added: registered company name, company number, registered office address and ICO registration number.]
Contact us about privacy at hello@willharbour.co.uk.
What information we collect
Questionnaire answers
When you complete one of our questionnaires, we collect your answers. Depending on the service, this may include the kind of help you need, your general circumstances (for example whether you own property, have children or have an existing Will), whether someone has died and your relationship to them, and roughly when you would like help.
Contact details
Your name, email address, phone number, postcode and how you prefer to be contacted.
Messages
Anything you send us through our contact form or by email.
Technical data
When you use our website, our servers record limited technical information, such as your IP address, browser type, the pages requested and the date and time. We use this to keep the site secure and working. We do not use tracking or advertising cookies on our questionnaires.
Health and other sensitive information
We do not ask for health information or medical diagnoses, and we ask you not to include them. If you choose to tell us something sensitive, for example about someone's health or capacity, we will only use it to handle your enquiry, with your explicit consent. You can withdraw that consent at any time.
How we use your information and our lawful bases
| What we do | Lawful basis under UK GDPR |
|---|---|
| Review your enquiry and share it with up to three solicitors or will-writing firms so they can contact you | Your consent to share your enquiry, which you give before submitting. You can withdraw it for future sharing at any time |
| Email you the names of the firms we have shared your enquiry with | Legitimate interests (being open with you about who has your details) |
| Keep a record of your consent and of which firms received your enquiry | Legal obligation (we must be able to show you gave consent) and legitimate interests (handling questions and complaints) |
| Reply to messages sent through our contact form or by email | Legitimate interests (responding to people who contact us) |
| Keep our website and systems secure and prevent misuse | Legitimate interests (security and fraud prevention) |
| Handle complaints and keep records of introductions | Legitimate interests, and legal obligations where they apply |
| Send optional updates or newsletters, if you have opted in | Your consent, which you can withdraw at any time |
Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have considered your interests and rights and believe our use is reasonable and expected. You can object to it at any time.
Who we share your information with
- Up to three solicitors or will-writing firms. With your permission, we share your questionnaire answers and contact details with up to three solicitors or will-writing firms (or, for estate planning, firms that offer estate-planning services) that buy introductions from us, so they can contact you. Once a firm receives your details, it becomes a separate controller of your data and its own privacy notice applies. We email you the names of the firms we have shared your enquiry with.
- Service providers. We use carefully chosen IT, hosting and email providers to run our website and services. They act as processors, only on our instructions and under contracts that protect your data.
- Others where required. We may share information if the law requires it, or to protect our rights or the safety of others.
The firms pay us a fee for each introduction. This is not the same as selling your details to marketing lists, which we never do. We only share your enquiry with the firms we name to you, so they can contact you about the help you asked for.
How long we keep your information
- Enquiries (questionnaire answers and contact details): up to 2 years, then deleted.
- Contact form messages and emails: 12 months, then deleted.
- Security logs: 12 months, then deleted.
- Complaint records: as long as needed to deal with the complaint and any follow-up, normally no longer than 2 years after it is closed.
You can ask us to delete your information sooner.
International transfers
Some of our service providers may store or process data outside the UK. Where this happens, we make sure appropriate safeguards are in place, such as UK adequacy regulations, the International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to the EU standard contractual clauses.
Your rights
Under UK data protection law you have the right to:
- ask for a copy of the information we hold about you
- ask us to correct information that is wrong or incomplete
- ask us to delete your information
- ask us to restrict how we use your information
- object to our use of your information where we rely on legitimate interests
- ask for your information in a portable format, where this applies
- withdraw your consent at any time, without affecting what we did before
To use any of these rights, email hello@willharbour.co.uk. We will normally respond within one month. If you withdraw your consent, we will not share your enquiry with any more firms. This does not undo sharing that has already happened. We will let any firm that already has your details know, but you may also need to ask them directly to stop contacting you or to delete your information.
Security
We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your information, including encrypted connections, access controls and limiting who can see enquiries.
Cookies
We only use strictly necessary cookies by default. See our cookie policy for details.
Complaints
If you are unhappy with how we have used your information, please contact us first so we can try to put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint.
Changes to this notice
We may update this notice from time to time. The version and date below show when it last changed.
Version 1.1, 1 October 2026.
