Irene Streit-Müller is a qualified fiduciary expert with more than 25 years of experience in the sector. Prior to starting her own business with ANOBIS AG in the summer of 2018, she managed the fiduciary department of medium-sized consulting companies for six years. She spoke to us about the last few months and what the fiduciary profession will look like in the future.
Dear Ms. Streit-Müller, how have you experienced these past months and what questions have you been asking yourself?
At the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, I felt a relatively high level of uncertainty and insecurity on the client side. Many questions were asked, including from a legal point of view. For example, questions relating to the enforcement of claims or questions relating to deadlines.
Interesting. Your comments imply that clients – especially in the COVID-19 era – are increasingly turning to their fiduciary agents for legal advice. What is the range of legal services covered by fiduciary agents?
I think that in answering this question, one must be aware of the following distinction: On the one hand, small and medium sized fiduciary firms often provide legal “first level support”. This means that these firms assist clients in less complex matters, such as a loan agreement or the incorporation of a corporation or limited liability company. For more complex cases, an attorney is often consulted. On the other hand, there are larger fiduciary companies that offer a very wide range of legal services, often employing their own team of lawyers and attorneys.
In this context, we come to Approovd. Have you already been able to use Approovd to your advantage, and if so, how?
Of course! In my opinion, Approovd largely covers the legal needs of SMEs. I am talking here first of all about the documents inherent to the daily management of a company, such as the minutes of the general meeting or the board of directors. But there are also a number of documents relating to labor law, such as employment contracts or personnel regulations. For my part, I have benefited a lot from the documents specific to COVID-19, such as the agreement on the partial rent rebate. In this respect, Approovd’s library goes further than the traditional “first level support” of fiduciary agents – or at least can complement it optimally.
Do you therefore consider Approovd as a sustainable solution for fiduciary agents in the so-called B2B2C sector?
You could say that, yes. On the one hand, we reduce our own risks because the risk of errors is considerably mitigated when working with Approovd’s document templates. On the other hand, our working method is also more efficient since legal documents can be individualized in just a few minutes. In addition, the documents always take into account the most recent case law and contain all the details of a specific legal area. All in all, as a fiduciary agent, this gives me an additional security when the quality of the legal documents is guaranteed by Approovd.
Thank you very much for this interview. A last word?
Thank you very much. Notwithstanding all the difficulties that COVID-19 has caused, I believe that these are very exciting times and many opportunities will present themselves. As far as Approovd is concerned, I hope that the combination of the expertise of the fiduciary agents and the high quality legal documents of Approovd will promote synergy effects and thus open a fertile ground for sustainable cooperation.
