Background
I got into estate planning through the numbers. Twelve years of bookkeeping and accountancy means I’ve seen what estates are actually made of: the business, the couple of properties, the accounts someone’s been keeping in a shoebox since 2003. You also see how often a family gets caught out by something nobody thought to check in time.
Then I spent three years at large corporate estate planning firms. The work itself was good. But it all ran to a timetable, and I kept having conversations that were shorter than the decision deserved. That’s not a small thing when it’s someone’s family you’re talking about. So I left and set up EG Waterfalls.
How I work
Unhurried conversations, plain English, and a straight answer about what you do and don’t need.
That means saying when something is unnecessary. A great deal of what gets sold as estate planning is machinery in search of a problem, and a well-drafted Will with the right people named does more for most families than an elaborate structure they don’t understand and can’t maintain.
It also means no surprises about money. Start with the free Clarity Report: eleven questions, about three minutes, and it doesn’t ask for your name, your email or your phone number. It tells you whether a basic Will will do, whether your situation needs a proper conversation, or whether the plan you already have still fits. If there’s a conversation to be had, it’s half an hour and it’s free. Only after that do you get an Estate Protection Plan: what I’d recommend, what each part does, and exactly what it costs. Fixed fees, agreed before any work begins.
Your details don’t travel by email. Estate planning paperwork contains almost everything someone would need to impersonate you: name, date of birth, address history, what you own, who your family are. So it stays inside a secure system with proper access controls, and I’ll never ask you to email me anything sensitive.
And it means being clear about boundaries. I handle Wills, Lasting Powers of Attorney, trusts and estate structuring. Some things fall outside that: a contested estate, say, or a decision that needs regulated financial advice, pensions and investments in particular. Where that happens I’ll tell you, and point you to the right person or work alongside the adviser you already have, rather than straying outside what I’m qualified to give.
What you can expect
- Most families don’t need a trust. If yours doesn’t, I’ll say so. Trusts are the expensive thing on my price list, and I’d still rather you knew.
- Your plan will tell you which parts I don’t think you need, and why, in writing. You’re free to disagree with me. It’s written down so that you can.
- A fixed price before anything starts, and something useful from me before I ask for your name.
- Where a decision needs someone else, whether that is regulated financial advice, a grant of probate or a court application, I’ll tell you, and give you a name.
- And if what you already have turns out to be fine, that’s what I’ll tell you.
That’s the best protection for the people you care about, arrived at honestly, and not a pound more of it than you need.
Qualifications and memberships
I’m a member of the Society of Will Writers. That means a code of practice I’m bound by, a written complaints procedure I have to follow, and, if I don’t put something right to your satisfaction, somewhere to take it other than back to me. Every year I have to show the Society my indemnity cover, my continuing professional development and my complaints procedure before my membership is renewed.
The Society requires its members to carry at least £2 million of professional indemnity insurance. Mine is £3 million. If a mistake of mine costs your family money, there’s cover behind it rather than an apology.
I’m an Affiliate member of STEP, the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners, the international body for estate planning specialists. I’m working towards Associate membership and then full TEP status, and I’m in the final year of a law and accounting degree. That sits on top of fifteen years working with people’s money and what it’s tied up in, the last several of them in estate planning. The rules in this field move most years. Keeping ahead of them is part of the job, not an extra.
Who I work with
I’m based in Coventry and work across Warwickshire: Leamington, Warwick, Kenilworth, Rugby, Nuneaton, Stratford and the villages in between. Most conversations happen by video call, which suits people better than it sounds: no travelling, easier to find half an hour, and far easier to get everyone who should be in the conversation into it, even when they’re three hundred miles apart.
If a video call won’t work for you, say so and we’ll sort something out. I can visit at home where it’s needed. And distance is no obstacle either way: I work with families anywhere in England and Wales.
Evening and weekend appointments are available by arrangement, because the conversations that matter are rarely convenient to schedule.
Wills and powers of attorney in Ukrainian
I speak fluent Ukrainian, and I’ll do the whole thing in Ukrainian if that’s easier for you.
This matters more than it sounds. There are a lot of Ukrainian families in the UK now making decisions about Wills and lasting powers of attorney with a son or a niece translating as they go. That’s not the same as doing it in your own language. You end up agreeing to things you’ve half-understood, and nobody wants to keep asking the interpreter to go back over the bit about trusts.
So: the meeting, the questions, the explanations, all in Ukrainian if you prefer. The documents themselves have to be in English to be valid here, but you’ll understand every line of them before you sign.
Beyond work
Training and wellbeing aren’t something I fit in around the edges. They’re a big part of how I live. Running, spin, yoga, and I don’t drink. There’s no dramatic story behind that, it just suits me. It also helps with a job that involves sitting with people through some heavy conversations and staying steady while you do it.
Beyond that I travel as much as I can get away with. I speak fluent Japanese and Ukrainian, and I keep ending up back in Japan. And I’ve got three children, sorry, meant dogs: Seamus, a stunning Irish Wolfhound, and two mini schnauzers who have plenty to say about him.
This page is general information, not advice about your own circumstances. Every family’s position is different, and the only way to know what yours needs is a conversation about it.