Great British Wills
About Great British Wills
Founded in 2016 — because the right documentation should not be the thing that gets left until it is too late.
For many years I had been advising British expatriate clients in the UAE on their financial planning — and telling every one of them the same thing: a will is the cornerstone of any financial plan. Without the right documentation, even a carefully structured financial position can unravel at the moment a family needs it most.
Referring clients to lawyers helped, but the process was slow. The coordination between English law documents and the assets and arrangements that sat outside England and Wales was rarely addressed comprehensively by any single adviser.
Then a colleague died unexpectedly in the UAE. He was a professional with a family, assets across two jurisdictions, and documentation that was incomplete. I saw at first hand how quickly an already devastating loss becomes practically complicated for an expatriate family — assets temporarily inaccessible, multiple legal frameworks operating simultaneously, and a family navigating consequences that proper planning would have prevented entirely.
That experience prompted me to act. In 2016 I founded Great British Wills — to make it straightforward for British expat families in the UAE to understand their estate planning position and have the right documentation in place, before it is needed.
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What You Get
You get an English law will drafted by someone who understands your situation as a British expat — not a template produced by someone unfamiliar with the specific circumstances of living and holding assets across jurisdictions.
You get a clear and honest account of what your will covers and what it does not — including assets held in trust, jointly owned property and pension arrangements, each of which passes outside your estate by a different mechanism.
You get referrals to appropriately qualified lawyers for assets held outside England and Wales. The lawyer introduced depends on the nature and location of your assets — determined through the initial conversation rather than assumed in advance.
You get clarity on guardianship for families with children, and a structured view of how your estate planning sits across the jurisdictions relevant to your family.
And where your circumstances reveal a UK inheritance tax exposure or a pension nomination review is warranted, you have direct access to specialist advice through Stuart Porter Financial Planning
Professional Background
Stuart Porter FPFS is a Chartered Financial Planner and an Associate of STEP — the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners — a globally recognised professional body of over 22,000 members specialising in wills, trusts and international estates. His STEP qualification underpins the estate planning guidance provided through Great British Wills and reflects a professional standard designed specifically for the complexity that cross-border families face.
Stuart has lived and worked in the UAE since 2001 and has advised British expat families here for 25 years. He understands this environment from the inside.
Stuart Porter does not provide legal advice on UAE law or the law of any jurisdiction other than England and Wales. Legal work outside England and Wales is provided by the qualified lawyers to whom clients are referred. Stuart Porter Financial Planning provides financial planning and UK inheritance tax planning advice