Purcell Partners accelerates innovative mortgage settlement process with Docusign

Streamlining same day settlement

Taking out a mortgage can be a long and stressful process for everyone involved— and that’s without considering that sometimes paperwork needs to be signed and processed from the other side of the world, in a different timezone. 

As an established legal practice that has been servicing the mortgage lending industry since the late 1990s, Purcell Partners focuses on making this process as easy as possible. 

Since its inception 24 years ago, Purcell Partners has placed an ongoing focus on refining its systems and technology, to ensure a seamless customer experience. So much so that in 2005, Director and Partner, Simon Purcell, developed a cloud-based IT platform, LEXTECH, which enables borrowers, lenders, brokers, solicitors and conveyancers to communicate digitally throughout the mortgage process - from pre-application to contracting to the final settlement. 

Purcell Partners’ philosophy focuses on a transparent, customer-centric approach to ensure clients receive what they need in a simple and secure way. Streamlining end-to-end conveyancing transactions on LEXTECH’s electronic platform was naturally next step. 

A smooth, secure loan signing workflow 

Traditionally, there’s a vast amount of paperwork associated with securing a mortgage. 

On average, Purcell Partners issues 30 loan documents per day. The organisation grappled with slow paper-based elements. Each matter has approximately 100 pages, meaning that they were printing approximately 825,000 per year in loan documents alone. It was an arduous and error-prone process, with time costly consequences should the documents require re-issuing.

Purcell Partners recognised that it had to improve its customer experience and overhead costs, and was taking steps to go paperless with LEXTECH. In addition, the firm needed to ensure contracts were signed securely. 

“It really made sense to integrate Docusign with LEXTECH,” said Jack Meredith, Head of Operations. “We can let clients know upfront that everything will be electronically processed on LEXTECH’s cloud platform. We are able to provide our client’s customers with a simple and transparent service that can be accessed on any device, at any time, from anywhere.” 

As an easy-to-use solution with multi-factor authentication, Docusign eSignature enables LEXTECH’s clients to sign securely from anywhere in the world with ease. LEXTECH uses Docusign to issue documents in accordance with Australian law.

“With Docusign, we feel assured that the documents are tamper-proof, as they’re issued directly to the borrower - it’s a very reliable solution.” 

Eliminating signature bottlenecks across international time zones 

Before signing took place with Docusign on LEXTECH, the various steps leading up to property settlement took too long - three days for documents to reach solicitors, another four days for the documents to come back.

With Docusign and LEXTECH, Purcell Partners now settles most clients’ transactions within 48 hours. 

“Docusign has transformed the way we function, and we really feel a sense of teamwork,” Mr Meredith said.

Already, the customer experience has significantly improved. This helps Purcell Partners stand out from competitors as LEXTECH can now allow for true same day settlements.

In one case, Purcell Partners received instructions through LEXTECH late on a Thursday night for a Friday settlement in Australia. The urgency was amplified as the buyer was in New York and would incur penalty interest rates if the settlement was delayed. Using Docusign with XPRESS DOCS, the documents were dispatched to all parties - from powers of attorney to brokers - and returned in less than 12 hours. Docusign also eliminated the complexity of international signing clauses.

Based on its success with eSignature, Purcell Partners is looking to expand its Docusign solution portfolio.  

“As security regulations continue to mature, the solutions that Docusign can provide in the future will have a high level of synergy with LEXTECH,” said Devesh Chauhan, Head of Strategic Development. “We want to stay one step ahead of the game – as a fintech provider and within regulatory bounds - and Docusign enables us to do exactly that.”