Rowlinsons Solicitors

“I’ve recommended Armalytix to other law firms who are now their established clients, and every one of them has come back with nothing but positive feedback.”

– Tom Parkinson, Director & Head of Property Department, Rowlinsons Solicitors

• Clients now provide 75-80% of the information needed first time
• Source of funds checks take as little as one day
• Significantly reduced back-and-forth with clients

About Rowlinsons Solicitors

Rowlinsons Solicitors is a Cheshire law firm with over four decades of experience and three offices across Knutsford, Runcorn (Sutton Weaver), and Frodsham. Around 80 people work across the firm, with around 35 in the property department, split broadly 65:35 in favour of residential over commercial work.

The manual problem

Prior to utilising Armalytix, source of funds checks were entirely manual at Rowlinsons Solicitors. Tom Parkinson, Director, heads up the property department and saw first-hand the many complications that arise from manual checks.

The process was slow and repetitive. An initial request to a client would typically return less than half of what was actually needed, and lawyers could find themselves going back and forth many times to get everything they needed, which became a source of frustration for both clients and conveyancers alike.

Security with sharing personal information was also a concern. Clients were often asked to provide bank statements, copies of confidential documents, and other personal documents by post or email, which created concerns that sensitive financial and identity information would be put at risk in transit. Tom recalled:

“If you’re sending bank statements through the post, personal details and/or copies of passports by unencrypted email – all of that confidential information being sent is wide open to being intercepted.”

With full verification of a clients’ source of funds and wealth sometimes taking a significant amount of time, the manual process was clearly holding up matters at exactly the point clients wanted matters moving fastest.

A faster, safer route to compliance

Rowlinsons Solicitors subsequently moved to Armalytix for their source of funds and wealth checks, replacing the paper trail with a guided digital journey built into the firm’s own client-facing app. 

Most recently, Rowlinsons moved their electronic ID check to Armalytix as well. As a result, their clients receive an onboarding link, sign their client care letter, and are taken into Armalytix to verify their identity and complete their source of funds check — all from their smartphone. Tom said:

“As soon as the client runs through the Armalytix process, often at day one, we’re having their responses returned. Armalytix really lets the client do what they need to seamlessly, finish it quickly, and return it to us promptly.”

The report layout took some getting used to at first, for both Tom and the wider team, but the learning curve was short. After working through two or three examples, he found himself moving through them quickly, knowing exactly where to look for the answers he needed. 

That same pattern held true when the platform was rolled out to staff. Regardless of proficiency and comfort with technology, everyone reached the same level of confidence with the reports after a short adjustment period, helped by live demonstrations from Tom himself.

Freeing up time, for staff and clients alike

The impact on turnaround times has been significant. Checks that used to take weeks are now typically resolved within a day, and staff can work through a report in a matter of minutes rather than hours. Tom summarised the impact:

“Our lawyers can quickly read through an Armalytix report in just several minutes. They know straight away what’s missing, what hasn’t been provided, and what to ask for next.”

Getting closer to a complete picture on the first attempt, typically 75–80% of the way there rather than 30–40%, has cut the number of follow-up requests sent to clients to as little as a day. Armalytix’ live chat support also fields client questions directly, thus reducing the number of queries that land back on fee earners’ desks.

The reports give the firm a clearer, easier way to evidence the due diligence behind the client and matter risk assessments required on every transaction. The risk decision stays with the firm, and the reports point the team in the right direction and help them dig into any gaps in the evidence they’ve received.

Tom sees a wider benefit too: the strength of the firm’s due diligence processes feeds into its accreditations and its relationship with insurers. Rowlinsons Solicitors is a Lexcel and CQS-accredited, award-winning firm, and has secured competitive PII rates, all of which Tom links in part to the robustness that tools like Armalytix bring to its AML processes: 

“Thanks to tools like Amalytix, third parties are seeing what we’re doing in relation to our clients, in terms of ensuring the security of the transaction and the risk of the transaction is low”

A partnership built on feedback

Rowlinsons Solicitors has been using Armalytix for around four years. Beyond the product itself, Tom highlights the relationship with the Armalytix team as a key part of the value the firm gets from the platform, describing the support and training as consistently strong whenever the firm has needed it:

“Armalytix has always been brilliant, on the product and on the support side. They take the time to listen to what we think. We gave Sheryl Hodgson some feedback on a report for a service we weren’t yet using, and she made the change anyway, for the benefit of other customers.”

Armalytix’s willingness to share its product roadmap and take on customer feedback, including through its regular innovation days, is something Tom points to when recommending the platform. He has already put Armalytix forward to other law firms, all of whom are now clients and have come back to him with nothing but positive feedback. Summarising the support, Tom said:

“They want to ensure that they gather feedback directly from their customers, including our views on whether it’s a good idea or a bad idea, anything they’re not thinking of, or ideas for any tweaks to the existing suite of products.”

The value of one platform

For Tom, the benefits of Armalytix go beyond any single check. As compliance requirements evolve, he sees real value in keeping as much of the process as possible under one platform, with one point of contact and one clear picture of a client’s due diligence, rather than piecing it together across multiple systems and providers:

“It’s certainly much tidier and cleaner having everything with one provider — one report, one point of contact, all in one place.”

It’s a principle that has already shaped how Rowlinsons Solicitors approaches compliance, and one that continues to guide how the firm thinks about the tools it relies on.