Life can change quickly. Planning ahead, having the right conversations, and using tools like trusts can help protect what matters most.

Will Spencer, founder of Rest Easier joined me on Get Ready Before Life Happens to explore why estate planning is important for everyone, how families can protect assets from disappearing over time, and why early money conversations create more clarity and confidence across generations. Will shares practical ways to simplify planning, update beneficiaries, and help families prepare before life happens.

 

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Connect with Will Spencer: 

 

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/willspencerresteasier/
• Rest Easier Website: https://resteasier.co.uk

 

Bio: 

 

Will Spencer is the Founder & CEO of Rest Easier, a UK-based startup building "the family office for the 99%", giving employees access to estate planning, life-event financial coordination, and protection infrastructure through their employer. Will's career spans founder-led sales, investor relations, and product strategy, all focused on making financial preparedness accessible to people who'd otherwise never get it.

 

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Transcript

Tony Steuer:
Life can change quickly. Planning ahead, having the right conversations, and using tools like wills and trusts can help protect what matters most.

Welcome to Get Ready: Before Life Happens. I’m Tony Steuer.

Today, I’m joined by Will Spencer, founder of Rest Easier.

Will, welcome to Get Ready: Before Life Happens.

Will Spencer:
Thanks for having me, Tony.

I’m really excited to talk through this situation. I really enjoy what you’re doing.

As you put it, there are lots of tools available to help us prepare. It is about making people aware of them and giving people access to them.

Tony:
Definitely.

I’m looking forward to sharing with the audience how you’re expanding beyond the paperwork and the documents.

I think that is very important.

To start off, tell us a little bit about yourself.

What is your origin story, and how did it lead you to creating Rest Easier?

Will:
I spent a couple of years working in the legal space, then moved into HR and spent 15 years working there.

About three and a half years ago, my father-in-law passed away.

He had talked about some assets that we never managed to find, about £90,000 worth.

I thought, “Wow, it’s just gone into the ether somewhere.”

I was unsure at the time whether that was normal.

I subsequently found out that £15 billion a year disappears in the UK. I believe that number is about 30 times more in the U.S.

We started looking at the reasons for that.

We did some surveying and tried to understand why people do not have plans in place.

It came down to three key things: time, money, and education.

So we created a platform called Rest Easier, which is designed to democratize financial planning and financial wellbeing and make it accessible to everybody.

Tony:
That is important because I think a lot of people think estate planning is for wealthy people.

Estate planning really is for everyone.

What would you say to someone who says, “I do not really have enough assets to do an estate plan”?

Will:
It is really interesting.

I tend to blame American sitcoms and children’s sitcoms for creating this idea of imaginary wealth.

But to the point of assets disappearing, that is probably the key piece.

It does not matter what you have.

Make sure you protect it.

Make sure people around you know about it because otherwise, you just become a number.

I talk to a lot of organizations, and we sell into businesses.

People sit in boardrooms arguing about 1% pay raises.

Fundamentally, in the long term, they do not really matter that much if somebody walks out of the room that night, does not come back, and there is nothing in place to protect what they have built.

You can argue about the 1% as much as you like.

But if everything disappears into the ether and it does not affect the next generation, then there is a question about whether that legacy lives on as it should.

Tony:
Definitely.

I can attest to this myself.

I just received notification that I had some money in a pension with a long-ago employer.

It was not a lot of money, but I did not even know I had a pension with that employer.

It was my very first job out of college, so even for somebody in the money world, I was still not very financially aware.

That was quite a surprise.

As you point out, there are billions of dollars in unclaimed property in the U.S.

For people watching and listening, I do have an unclaimed property checklist for people in the U.S. that can help you track down some of this unclaimed property.

That is a huge point.

Will, one of the things that captivated me during our first conversation was a story you shared about an attorney in Las Vegas whose situation changed quickly.

Can you share that story, what happened, and what it revealed about financial preparedness?

Will:
Yes.

It was a program I was watching about the real life of Las Vegas.

I think it was called The Real Life of Las Vegas.

It was about an attorney who had gone to Las Vegas for a bachelor party and, unfortunately, had been led down multiple stray paths in Las Vegas and subsequently lost everything.

He did not want to return home because of shame and other things.

You just wonder.

I think we talked about it at the time.

The world sets you up to fail financially.

It does not set you up to be successful financially.

You are not educated around it.

There are temptations everywhere.

On the back of that, I was reading the other day that you can now connect your bank account to a fruit machine in Las Vegas.

In what world is that setting people up for success?

Yes, maybe one in a million walks out of there in a better position.

For the most part, people are walking out potentially losing everything they have spent a lifetime earning.

I think society does not really focus on helping people prepare.

Particularly in the UK, we are really bad at talking about money.

You in the U.S. are certainly much better at it.

How do we get to a place where, collectively, we start to realize the importance of education early, planning early, and making sure the people around us have access to understand what to do if and when things go wrong?

And not just from a financial perspective.

I was chatting to someone the other day who got knocked off their bike in London.

They did not have a power of attorney in place, and they were 24 years old.

Trying to understand the financial position in that space was quite difficult for the people around him.

Martin Lewis, who you might know in the U.S., talked this week about power of attorney being the most important document.

I do not necessarily fundamentally agree with that.

I think it is part of a full range of documents.

But he did not give people education on it or viewpoints on it, and it almost creates this scaremongering society.

That is good for awareness, but it is not great from an educational perspective because it just makes people more concerned that they do not have another document.

If we start to educate and give access, then people’s financial peace of mind can start to come to the forefront.

Tony:
It is about educating and access.

What you said earlier is so interesting: the world sets you up to fail financially.

If you think about that, at least in the U.S., a lot of the big financial literacy programs are promoted by credit card companies and banks, which of course have a vested interest.

Some of the programs can be helpful, but they do not always hit on the issues that would really help people avoid running up tremendous amounts of credit card debt.

Will:
Exactly.

Across various aspects, banks, credit cards, gambling associations in sports, and different pieces like that are all there.

Ten years ago, tobacco was taken out of the forefront because people recognized the harm.

There are all these other pieces that subtly may cause equally as much damage, if not more.

It is an interesting way that we set ourselves up.

Tony:
Definitely.

Online casinos are a huge problem in the U.S.

Prediction markets are also a growing problem.

They say they are not betting, but they are really wagering.

Will:
Yes.

I was talking to somebody about the way some stock systems are set up.

There was one in particular, and I will not name it, but it was set up almost to leverage the fact that people like to gamble around stocks.

That was the portfolio sell.

People have full access all day, including off-hours, to trade.

Perhaps there is not the right amount of protection upfront.

Obviously, regulations are in place.

Whether those regulations go far enough to educate people is open to debate.

Tony:
Definitely.

That gets back to education and preparedness.

If you are day trading stocks, that is one of the most dangerous things because people do not always understand that they are playing against experts.

It is like playing basketball against a professional basketball player when you are an amateur.

The people you are playing against in the stock market are people who do this all day.

They have gone to college or university for it.

They are pros.

Will:
Yes.

There is also a reason they demonize crypto.

I am sure we are all aware of someone out there who talks about making their fortune from crypto.

What we do not hear about is the people who went the other way and bought into what were almost Ponzi schemes, selling out for a significant loss.

That is another aspect of gambling.

There is no real data behind it.

You are taking a punt, and it either comes off or it does not.

Tony:
Exactly.

Crypto is a whole other issue.

We could definitely go down that rabbit hole.

One of the big things with Rest Easier is encouraging people to talk about money.

Why do so many people avoid talking about money, even when they know it matters and it is important?

Will:
It is a strange one.

I will use the workplace here.

Fifteen years ago, we started encouraging people to talk about mental health.

We have taken big strides in that space.

I think we are now in a place where we need to look at financial wellbeing in the same way.

We need to encourage people to put their hand up and say, “I might have inherited some money,” or, “I might have won some money,” or, “I might have built this really successful company, and now I have all this money and I do not know what to do with it.”

People are almost frowned upon for asking the question.

Obviously, there are avenues around financial planning.

But for the most part, if you are not aware they exist, perhaps you do not know whether to use them.

At the other end, from the perspective of individuals talking about financial wellbeing and their own finances, people in the UK particularly find that quite discouraging.

We still do not advertise salaries on every job in the UK.

You apply for a job and do not know what the salary is.

You are not allowed to talk about salaries at work, and all of these different pieces.

There is this stigma around finance that we need to start breaking down a little bit.

Tony:
Breaking down the stigma of talking about money is critical.

It goes through every society and culture.

People do not talk about money, yet money plays such an important role in our lives.

The thing for me that people miss is that you do not have to talk about the dollars and cents when you talk about money.

You can talk generally.

As you said, “I have an inheritance and I am not sure what to do about it.”

You do not have to say, “I inherited $1.2 million in crypto.”

I am kidding. Not in crypto.

Will:
You did well, though.

There is a piece we are trying to address slightly.

When an employer buys a license, we give them an additional license.

The purpose is that society assumes you get educated down through a family.

Fundamentally, we can see now that this is not necessarily working because more people are paying inheritance tax and people are not aware of the technological tools and other options that exist.

How do we get a younger generation to start thinking about it?

Not necessarily talking about the dollars and pounds, as you say, but starting to ask, “Mom, Dad, do you have these things in place? Are these tools new to you? Do you have them?”

At a really fundamental level, my parents are not going to pay inheritance tax.

I am going to pay the inheritance tax.

So how can we start to think about that, plan for it, and get ourselves into the best position?

Over the next 20 years, we are about to hit the biggest generational wealth transfer the world has ever seen.

I am pretty sure globally we are sleepwalking into it.

I am 100% sure in the UK we are sleepwalking into it.

It is going to hit people.

It is going to hit people very hard, and it should not.

We should be looking at this wealth transfer as a way to set up generations to come, not thinking about it as a transfer that boosts the individual economies of those states.

It should do that through spending and through people having access to more cash than they otherwise would have.

That is great for the economy, but it should not primarily be a tax implication.

It should be about how we collectively protect what our parents and grandparents have earned and make sure we stretch it as long as possible.

Tony:
That is a valid point.

Planning can help you keep more money in your family rather than having it go to the estate or to taxes unnecessarily.

In the U.S., there have been court rulings that a taxpayer has the right to do that.

Supreme Court Justice Learned Hand said every taxpayer has the right to arrange affairs so as to keep taxes as low as legally possible, as long as they pay what is due.

They have the right to plan and keep as much as they can.

Will:
That is exactly how it should be.

It is far more lenient in the U.S. in terms of what you can give than it is in the UK.

I do not know the fundamentals at a detailed level in the U.S., but I feel like you get taxed on everything from everything you drink to everything you eat, through to everything that you earn, and then when you die, they want to tax you again.

At some point, that becomes difficult.

That is where the playing field is not level in the UK.

It costs a lot of money to get standardized advice, or it did.

We are on a mission to democratize that and make it accessible to everybody.

Otherwise, it just enables the wealth gap to grow into a bigger chasm.

The rich continue to get richer, and everybody else carries on paying tax and losing money they otherwise should not have to lose.

Tony:
Tax systems around the world have become highly regressive.

In the U.S., that trend has happened with some of the more recent tax acts.

They have benefited the wealthy.

Tax planning is so complex, as you point out, that you need a professional or at least advanced knowledge to be able to take advantage of it.

It is set up in a way where, in the U.S., capital gains tax is much lower than income tax.

Depending on how you earn your money, it makes a huge difference in your tax liability.

Will:
Fundamentally, we have to learn from wealthy people.

Wealthy people who set up family offices and things like that look after generational wealth.

They talk about finances from an early phase.

They educate one another, both up and down the chain, around technology and how to do that.

It is about how we make those principles available to the 99% rather than just the 1%.

Tony:
One hundred percent.

Let’s talk about the conversations.

A lot of families cannot, do not, or will not talk about money.

How can families start these conversations?

Will:
Across the board, it is awareness.

Most people worldwide are in work.

In my opinion, there is an emphasis on employers.

In the UK, we are seeing that children are starting to be educated around this at school, and there are some great businesses doing work in that space.

So we are educating children.

Are you going to have a six-year-old going home and asking a 50-year-old questions around taxes?

What a great world to live in, because it is the inquisition.

That will flip an older generation into making sure they are knowledgeable.

I certainly would not want my eight-year-old son to know more about the world of tax than I do.

That is only going to start to move up.

There was a white paper submitted last year that I was involved in around pushing some action onto employers around education.

I think governments have to do a little more around education.

Collectively, society has to do more.

There is a reluctance for people to want to help and start the conversations.

At Rest Easier, we are obviously trying to do that.

There are other businesses also trying to do it.

Mine is fueled by a personal story.

I do not want other people to be in the same place.

There are hundreds of thousands of people out there who have had personal stories that are horror stories.

How do you start to make people even subtly aware of it?

Try to help each other out and make sure it does not happen to someone else.

It is positive intent.

It is about impact.

It is about providing tools in the spaces where people are.

And it is about moving in the right direction.

Tony:
So how does Rest Easier do that?

What does Rest Easier provide?

Will:
The Rest Easier platform provides what I will call cradle-to-grave education.

It goes all the way through from looking to get your first house, and before that, Junior ISAs and other pieces, right through to planning on having children.

It can provide cost analysis.

What does it look like?

How much do I need to save?

We have budget planners.

We have savings trackers.

You then log your assets and liabilities, so you get a true understanding of your net worth.

One thing I have learned from the family office side is that rich people know how much they are worth.

They can make informed financial decisions.

Wealthy people know what they can spend each month without moving themselves into negative equity.

Or if they do that, they do it consciously.

I am not sure everybody else can say that is the case.

From there, we go through how to protect your assets, yourselves, your children, and your homes.

We do that through wills, trusts, powers of attorney, and home transfer forms.

From the employer side, in the UK, you get pensions.

In the U.S., you get 401(k)s.

Life insurance is a really common benefit in the UK, but it is provisioned by beneficiary forms, not by the will.

So we allow individuals to complete those forms and send them off to their companies to help minimize the amount of money lost or going to the wrong person.

I had seven people die during my HR career.

Four of them paid money to the wrong beneficiaries because they had not updated the form in many years.

In one instance, money was paid to an ex-spouse.

It was a considerable amount of money.

You just think, “I am not sure the person would have wanted that.”

Unfortunately, legislation stands as it is.

You have to make these tough calls because individuals either were not given the opportunity or did not choose to update the forms in a timely manner.

But what is a timely manner?

We never know when our time is up.

Tony:
No, unfortunately we do not.

My background is in insurance, and I saw outdated beneficiary designations many times.

That is one simple thing everyone can do: review the beneficiaries on your insurance policies, retirement pensions, and anywhere else you can name a beneficiary.

It is so important.

Will, to wrap up, what are three things people should know about estate planning and trusts?

Will:
Great question.

First, they are viable for you.

They fit you.

It does not matter who you are watching this.

There is a benefit in it for you.

Second, they are not as complicated as people make them out to be, particularly when you use platforms and education to simplify them as much as possible.

They are not scary.

They are not massively time-consuming either.

Third, use them to protect the people you care about.

We all go to work for a reason.

That reason is to live and make sure we can set up the people around us who we care about.

If something happens to us, make sure you do that.

Do not waste your money.

Do not waste the effort you put into life.

Make sure that money does not go to the tax man as much as possible.

Make sure it does not get lost in the ether.

Make sure it goes to the people you care about and love.

Tony:
That is great advice.

When we are doing this planning, we are doing it as a gift for our loved ones.

It is a powerful thing we can do for our families.

Will, to wrap up, I have what I call the Get Ready Hot Take Trio.

These are three quick questions I ask all my guests.

What is one myth about estate planning or trusts that you are trying to break?

Will:
That they are all for the wealthy.

They are not just for wealthy people.

The children’s trust you see on TV is not the only type of trust.

Tony:
That is so important.

People think about that image, but everyone should have a will as a starter.

Let’s get out the time machine for a minute.

If you could go back in time, knowing what you know now about wills, trusts, and estate planning, what advice would you give your younger self?

Will:
I would educate the people around me.

One, my father-in-law would not have lost the money.

Two, my brother-in-law chose to spend the money in questionable ways that I am pretty sure my father-in-law would not have wanted.

So yes, I would educate people around me with the knowledge I have, which is what I am on a mission to do now.

I would have started that journey earlier.

I would have brought this out to people quicker than I have.

The more we talk about it, the more we can get it out there.

That would be the advice I would give myself.

I am now trying to live by that as much as I can.

Tony:
That is a powerful point.

Once you learn these things, share them with your loved ones.

These are not things to keep secret.

They can really help your family, friends, and colleagues at work.

That is how we affect change.

We talk about our sports clubs.

We should spend as much time talking about these things, which can make a difference and change someone’s life.

Will, last question: what is your number one tip to change the way we think about money and estate planning?

Will:
My number one tip is: do not think that everyone around you knows.

It is the same way we started to talk about breaking the stigma around mental health.

Do not assume everyone knows everything.

In that instance, it was, “Do not assume everyone is okay.”

In this instance, do not assume everyone has the knowledge and education you have.

If you are lucky enough to be in a position where you are financially literate, use that ability to help the people around you who you care about.

Ask them the question.

In this instance, it is not, “Are you okay?”

It is, “Do you feel financially comfortable? Do you feel financially literate? Is there anything I can help you with?”

You do not know how many people are out there carrying the burden of financial stress.

That financial stress, as we know from multiple studies, links into mental stress and other receptors.

Let’s all try to help each other out.

Tony:
That is a wonderful idea.

And of course, this podcast is a great place to learn about these things, as is Rest Easier.

Speaking of Rest Easier, where can people learn more about you and check out Rest Easier?

Will:
RestEasier.co.uk gives you information on the platform.

My LinkedIn is Will Spencer.

I am out there trying to promote the idea and share some ideas, so feel free to follow me.

Ask me any questions you have.

My email is [email protected].

I am more than happy to answer any questions people have.

Thank you very much, Tony.

Tony:
Thank you.

Thanks for coming on Get Ready: Before Life Happens.

For everybody watching and listening, as always, there will be links to Will’s website, the Rest Easier website, and his LinkedIn profile in the show notes.

Start your free Financial Readiness Plan at tonysteuer.com. It is a practical way to begin building your in-case-of-emergency plan before life happens.

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Because when life happens, the way you think about money matters.