On 1 March 2019, I launched this little company and this year we have just celebrated 5 years of Morecambe Bay Wills! In that time, we have grown in size and stature, we’ve recruited a wonderful local team and we’ve provided amazing services to our clients. Here is a little overview of where we’ve come from and where we’re at now!
The beginnings … and my “why”
My world was blown apart in late 2017 when my husband, Jim, was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer. From the beginning, we knew that we wouldn’t have much time left, so we started to get his affairs in order.
Our Wills needed updating Wills, but they never got signed before he died in August 2018. We didn’t have Powers of Attorney so dealing with finance when he was too ill to do so was a nightmare, and same for medical decisions. After Jim died, I had awful problems with his estate, probate and inheritance tax. And I really wanted to see if I could prevent this happening to others, and to thank the organisation that had helped us – CancerCare North Lancashire.
Rather than go back to the corporate world, I decided to set up my own business. I retrained and became qualified with The Society of Will Writers in early 2019. And I’ve never looked back!
The local community, including many business owners, started to support me and in 2019 I saw lots of clients and wrote around 100 Wills and Powers of Attorney. A fantastic start!
Growing quickly
In the last 5 years of Morecambe Bay Wills, we have seen an enormous growth. Most of this has been organic, and from personal recommendations – something we love! What better when someone asks us to help their parents after helping them? Over 80% of our work comes this way!
We also get local business owners – accountants, mortgage and financial advisors – asking us to help their clients. They do this because they trust us to look after them like they would themselves. And because we have shared values too.
So last year, our turnover was almost 30 times that in our first year! And the more work we do, the more good we do too. Since 2020 we have given 5% of every invoice to CancerCare – and have now raised over £20,000 for them. And any profit we make is ploughed back – half to our incredible team, and half into community projects such as Morecambe FC Community Sports.
And in our fifth year, we have just acquired Kendal Wills Limited and Lancaster Wills. So we will grow more, and give more to charity! We are excited about this new phase in our company’s story.
Our amazing team keeps growing!
When I started this company, it was just “little old me” working a couple of days a week. In the 5 years of Morecambe Bay Wills, we have grown our team to seven people!
My sister Paula joined me early in 2020 and we weathered the Covid storm together! Lots of people wanted to get protection and we worked hard to make sure we did it in a safe way. We loved the innovative ways we found of getting signatures from our clients!
We were getting much busier, so Andrea joined us as an Estate Planner in early 2021. Our clients love her and her caring approach shines through.
Georgia is my niece. She joined us as an administrator in 2021 and she works in our Lancaster office with Paula. She looks after our invoicing and ensures the documents we prepare for signing adhere to our high standards!
Jane, a non-practising solicitor, has been with us since early 2022. She decided to undertake refresher training on estate planning but her background in law really helps us in other areas too!
Sue is our Office Manager. Having joined us in July 2023, she was responsible for the move to our bigger offices at the beginning of this year. Sue looks after our administration team, and ensures our work flows efficiently.
And now we have Cerys – based in North Wales. I have a small cottage in the area and have been looking after clients there in the last couple of years. These are referred by local advisors who love the way we work. So, Cerys has just joined us to help support those in her local community.
But actually, it doesn’t matter who you deal with from our team. We all live and breathe our values of charity, empathy and integrity in everything we do!
We’ve had lots of successes!
In the 5 years of Morecambe Bay Wills, we have been recognised locally and nationally at the highest level for the work we do. These are some of the accolades that the team are proud to share.
British Wills & Probate Awards:
- Practitioner of the Year “One to Watch” (National) – Winner 2023
- Customer Service Champions (National) – Highly Commended 2023
- Will Writing Firm of the Year (Regional) – Winner 2021, Highly Commended 2022, Finalists 2023
- Will Writing Sole Practitioner of the Year (National) – Winner 2021
North West Family Business Awards:
- Best Social Impact – Finalists 2022
- Business Services – Finalists 2022
- People’s Champion – Finalists 2022
Legal Growth Awards:
- Best use of Social Media – Finalists 2024
- Corporate Social Responsibility – Winner 2024
I’ve also been elected to the Professional Standards Board at the Society of Will Writers. Something I’m really proud of as a newcomer to the industry!
We’ve looked after so many clients.
It isn’t all about awards though. It’s entirely about our clients!
5 years of Morecambe Bay Wills means we’ve helped so many get that peace of mind and reassurance that comes with having the right documents in place to protect them and their families.
We’ve seen a couple of thousand clients, prepared over 1500 Wills and over 1000 Powers of Attorney. But these are never “one-offs”. Our team don’t just prepare your Will and walk away. We are here when you have a question, need to amend it, and when your circumstances change too. We are here when your family grows, or you are facing illness or other difficulties. It’s a relationship, not a transaction.
And now we have several hundred more clients to look after from our acquisition of Kendal wills. We can’t wait to get to know them and support them in the future too.
And we are here to stay!
So, I would say we’ve come along way in a very short time. 5 years of Morecambe Bay wills is just the start! Keep an eye out for more exciting news in 2024 and beyond!
Thousands of people love the way we do things, and we have well over 100 5 star reviews to prove it! We can’t thank our clients enough for that!
If you want to know about our fabulous service provided by our amazing team, just call us on 01524 571032 or complete our Information Request Form on our website.