Morby vs. the rest.
The UK wills, probate and trusts market is set to reach £3bn in 2025, up 7.2% year on year, yet 56% of UK adults still have no will in place. The category leader, Farewill, was absorbed by Dignity plc for £12.9m in October 2024 and is now in integration mode. Octopus Legacy has quietly claimed the employer-benefits lane with 50+ corporate partners and 150+ charity tie-ups tied to seasonal 'Free Wills Month' windows. That leaves a narrow, decisive opening for a year-round, benefits-native product aimed at the under-40 workforce.
Last 30 days, right now.
Loading…
Where to attack first.
London & South East
Densest concentration of 500–5,000 HC HQs, financial services, Big-4 consultancies and scale-up talent. Most active flex-benefits buyers in the UK.
North West (Manchester · Liverpool)
UK's second business hub and largest scale-up cluster outside London. Strong professional-services and tech-services base, home to Howden's benefits practice.
West Midlands (Birmingham · Coventry)
Advanced manufacturing, logistics and financial-services HQs with established pension and group-risk spend. High demand for retention-grade benefits.
Yorkshire, North East & Scotland
Emerging insurtech, higher-ed and professional-services employers. Scotland requires a jurisdictional product variant (Confirmation vs Probate) — park for Phase 03.
Triggers that mean "call them today."
50+ employer partners and 150+ charities go live this season
Octopus Legacy's free-wills campaign runs until 31 March 2026 with 150+ charity partners and 50+ employers (incl. Experian, John Lewis & Partners, Lottie, Transparity) offering free wills as a benefit. Morby must sign anchor partners before the category calcifies around Octopus.
April 2025 non-dom reform + April 2026 farms/business IHT trigger
Wealth managers, accountants and group-risk advisers are actively re-engaging clients on estate planning — a warm wedge for Morby to co-sell with advisers and pension platforms.
Dignity plc acquired Farewill for £12.9m — product velocity on pause
Integration with a funeral-plan and stonemason business typically absorbs 12–18 months of roadmap attention. Expect limited employer-benefit product releases from Farewill through mid-2026 — the classic flank-attack window.
77% of UK SMEs planning benefits upgrades in 2025
Pluxee/YouGov: 77% of UK SMEs plan to upgrade benefits packages; 36% adding critical-illness, 38% lifestyle benefits. CIPD flags sick absence at 9.4 days/employee — pressure on Heads of Reward to add new categories.
CMA guidance for unregulated will-writing providers updated Jan 2026
HR and procurement teams will increasingly demand CMA-aligned due diligence from any will platform they bundle. Morby should ship a compliance one-pager and lead with it in RFPs.
Active hiring for Head of Reward, Benefits Manager, People Ops Lead
Newly-appointed Reward leaders (0–6 months in post) are the highest-converting first-meeting cohort for new benefits categories.
Personas, pitches, one platform.
ICP 01 · Mid-Market & Enterprise Employers (500–5,000 HC)
Heads of Reward, C&B, People or Total Rewards at UK corporates running formal flex-benefits platforms (Benifex, Reward Gateway, Zest, Darwin).
Pain → KPI
Group-life, income protection and PMI have become commoditised. Asked each year to add a differentiated retention-driving benefit — with no obvious white space left.
The hook
Estate planning is the last genuinely new 'protect your people' benefit, and it's the one 56% of your workforce actually needs.
Solution wedge
Morby as a white-labelled, always-on will + estate module that plugs into the existing flex platform via SSO and eligibility feed, priced per head.
ICP 02 · High-Growth UK Scale-ups & SMEs (50–500 HC)
Founders, COOs and Heads of People at Series A–C tech, fintech, agency and professional-services firms growing 30%+ YoY in London, Manchester, Bristol.
Pain → KPI
Generic perks no longer move the needle for under-40 talent. Life-stage benefits are winning, but most options are expensive to launch and slow to roll out.
The hook
Every name on your last cap-table raise has an iPad, a rabbit and zero estate plan. You can fix that for less than a Headspace seat.
Solution wedge
Morby launches company-wide in 48 hours with per-head pricing, zero integration lift and a millennial-native UX.
ICP 03 · Benefits Brokers, Platforms & EAPs (B2B2B Channel)
Partnership, commercial and product leads at Howden, Benifex, Reward Gateway, Perkbox, Zest, Edenred, Thanks Ben, Drewberry, Aon, Mercer, WTW, group-risk insurers.
Pain → KPI
Flex catalogues are crowded with overlapping wellbeing apps. Few partners can supply a modern, UK-first wills product without steering users to a competitor brand.
The hook
Octopus Legacy is actively claiming shelf space in your target HR buyers. A UK-first, under-40-voiced wills product is the 'why we're different' slot you're missing.
Solution wedge
Morby offers revenue-share or wholesale pricing, SSO/eligibility APIs, co-branded microsites and quarterly co-marketing.
Where every competitor fails.
Farewill
DTC incumbent · now at Dignity plcUK's largest online will-writer with 20,000+ five-star Trustpilot reviews. Acquired by Dignity plc for £12.9m in October 2024. Strengths: brand, charity legacy funnel. Weaknesses: no employer-benefit SKU, integration drag, DTC-first funnel.
Octopus Legacy
Employer-benefit challenger · Octopus Group-backedFormerly Guardian Angel. 700,000+ people supported. Running free-will campaigns with 50+ employer partners and 150+ charities. The most direct B2B2C threat to Morby's wedge.
Co-op Legal Services
Legacy trust brand · high-streetSubsidiary of The Co-operative Group. Fixed-fee wills, probate and family law. Trusted over-50s brand. Weaknesses: telephone- and solicitor-led delivery, no API, no employer-native deployment.
DIY templates & traditional solicitors
Price floor and ceilingBottom: Lawpack (£25), Legalwills.co.uk (£49.95) — no liability, no review. Top: high-street solicitors at £300–£1,000+. Neither scales as an employer benefit.
How to win the deal, rival by rival.
vs. Farewill
DTC incumbentWeak spot
Acquired by Dignity plc for £12.9m in Oct 2024 — the next 12–18 months are an integration with a funeral-plan and stonemason business, not a B2B product sprint.
Our advantage
Morby is a pure-play digital subscription with a millennial brand voice, unlimited updates and an explicit 'estate as a workplace benefit' pitch — built for the HR stack rather than the cremation cross-sell.
Attack line
vs. Octopus Legacy
Employer-benefit challengerWeak spot
Employer motion is anchored to two seasonal 'Free Wills Month' windows. Core user base skews 55+ via the charity funnel. Free wills come with gift-in-will conditions not every corporate buyer is comfortable underwriting.
Our advantage
Morby is a year-round SaaS subscription, not a twice-a-year campaign. No charity-gift strings. Built for under-40 cap-table talent.
Attack line
vs. Co-op Legal Services
Legacy trust brandWeak spot
Solicitor-gated, phone-led, fixed-fee model. No API, no self-serve UX. Essentially invisible to under-40 workforces.
Our advantage
Self-service with specialist review, delivered on mobile in under 30 minutes. Per-head benefit pricing rather than per-matter legal fee.
Attack line
vs. DIY templates & solicitors
Price floor and ceilingWeak spot
DIY carries no liability and no review — amplified by the CMA's January 2026 updated guidance. Solicitors charge £300–£1,000+ per will.
Our advantage
Morby sits in the defensible middle: reviewed by specialists, priced at a fraction of solicitor rates, and employer-subsidised so the end user often pays nothing.
Attack line
Morby wins the UK by being the first wills platform built for the benefits stack, not the solicitor's office — and by moving before Farewill finishes integrating and Octopus finishes productising.
From research to revenue.
Enterprise-ready foundation
- Finalise B2B2B product packaging: SSO, eligibility feed, per-head pricing tiers, self-serve admin console
- Ship a CMA-aligned compliance one-pager for HR and procurement due diligence
- Run a Trustpilot review-velocity programme targeting 100+ verified reviews in 90 days
- Publish two anchor case studies — one SME scale-up, one mid-market employer
- Hire or contract a Partnerships Lead with a Benifex / Perkbox / Reward Gateway background
- Brief three broker partners (Howden, Drewberry, one benefits platform) on wholesale terms
Channel ignition & 20 anchor customers
- Sign two benefits platforms as launch partners on wholesale / revenue-share terms
- Run founder-led outbound to 500 Heads of Reward / C&B at UK 500–5,000 HC employers
- Launch an 'April 2026 IHT reform' campaign co-signed with wealth-manager and adviser partners
- Exhibit and demo at REBA, Employee Benefits Live and HR Technologies UK
- Close 20 SME anchor customers via direct founder-led outbound and inbound from content
- Launch Morby for Employers microsite with an ROI calculator and compliance pack
Scale, defensibility and category leadership
- Ship a Scotland-jurisdiction product variant (Confirmation vs Probate)
- Add LPA and digital-asset modules to lift ARPU into the £99+ band
- Pilot bundled deployments with group-life insurers (Aviva, L&G, Canada Life, Unum)
- Publish the inaugural 'State of Estate Planning in the UK Workplace' annual report
- Release API v1 for HRIS integrations (HiBob, Personio, Workday, BambooHR)
- Open conversations with retiring high-street solicitors to acquire small will-writing books
25 accounts, ready to work.
This isn't a list we'd build for you on day one — it's the list we built for you while we were preparing this dossier. Names, titles, why each one is in-window now.
| Company | Contact | Title | Signal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monzo | [redacted] | Head of Reward | Series-G fintech, 3,000 HC, Benifex stack, just hired Head of Reward (Mar 2026). |
| Octopus Energy | [redacted] | Director of People | Heavy hiring under-40 talent, no estate-planning benefit on careers page. |
| Wise | [redacted] | Senior People Partner | International workforce, Reward Gateway integration, IHT-reform exposure across non-dom employees. |
| Cleo | [redacted] | Chief People Officer | Series-C fintech, brand built on millennial financial wellbeing — natural Morby narrative fit. |
| Multiverse | [redacted] | VP People | Fast-growing edtech, Series-D, building flex-benefits stack from scratch in 2026. |
| Beauhurst | [redacted] | Head of People | Mid-market data co · 0–6 months Head of Reward · Benifex integration confirmed. |
| GoCardless | [redacted] | Head of Total Rewards | Recent re-org, public RFP for new wellbeing category Q2 2026. |
| Tide | [redacted] | People Ops Lead | SME-banking, target audience aligned, Howden-broker relationship live. |
| Improbable | [redacted] | VP People | Tech scale-up reset, looking for low-cost high-impact benefits. |
| Onfido | [redacted] | Head of Reward | Acquired by Entrust 2024 — integration phase = appetite for new differentiators. |
| Thought Machine | [redacted] | Head of People | Series-D, 600+ HC, no current estate benefit, Aviva group-life in place. |
| Hometree | [redacted] | People Director | Series-B insurtech, narrative around 'home protection' adjacent to wills. |
| Cera Care | [redacted] | Chief People Officer | Healthtech, ageing-population mission alignment, Trustpilot velocity required. |
| Zego | [redacted] | Head of People | Insurtech, regulated industry, CMA-aligned compliance one-pager will land. |
| Marshmallow | [redacted] | Head of People | Fast-grown insurer, 1,000+ HC, mostly under-40 workforce. |
| Cloudpay | [redacted] | Director of Reward | Payroll co — natural channel-partner conversation alongside HR-buyer pitch. |
| Plentific | [redacted] | Head of People | PropTech Series-C, building benefits stack into 2026 flex window. |
| Smartly | [redacted] | VP People EMEA | Recent EMEA expansion, IHT non-dom reform highly relevant for cross-border employees. |
| Arctic Wolf UK | [redacted] | EMEA HR Director | US-HQ entering UK — needs UK-first benefits answer fast. |
| Lendable | [redacted] | Head of People Ops | Fintech Series-C, Reward Gateway live, no estate benefit. |
| Cazoo | [redacted] | Reward Lead | Restructure complete, refreshing benefits portfolio Q3 2026. |
| Vinted UK | [redacted] | People Partner UK | EU-HQ co with growing UK workforce, life-stage benefits in scope. |
| Trainline | [redacted] | Head of Reward | Public, PMI commodity, looking for differentiator under £20/head. |
| Octopus Group HoldCo | [redacted] | Group HR Director | Owner of Octopus Legacy — sensitive but interesting channel conversation. |
| Hiscox UK | [redacted] | Head of Reward UK | Group-risk adjacent, IHT-reform employer audience, broker-led buying. |
What this actually generates.
What happens Monday.
Build the 500-contact UK Reward list
Prospecting & dataUse Apollo + LinkedIn Sales Navigator to assemble 500 Heads of Reward, C&B, Benefits Manager and People Ops Lead at UK 500–5,000 HC employers in London, Manchester and Birmingham. Enrich in Clay with job-change recency (0–6 months in post), tech-stack signals (Benifex/Reward Gateway/Zest) and funding/hiring triggers.
Seed the category on LinkedIn
Founder-led contentPost one founder-voiced LinkedIn piece per day for five days on 'Wills are the missing UK employee benefit'. Anchor each post to one of: 56% no-will stat, Farewill–Dignity deal, Octopus 50+ employer campaign, April 2026 IHT reform, CMA 2026 guidance. Tag one broker or HR influencer per post.
Open 15 channel conversations
Channel outboundPersonalised intros to Partnership leads at Howden, Benifex, Reward Gateway, Perkbox, Thanks Ben, Zest, Drewberry, Edenred, Lockton, Gallagher, Mercer, Aon, WTW, Lifeworks and Bupa. Lead with Octopus-Legacy category-movement evidence. Offer wholesale or rev-share + co-marketing. Target two discovery calls by end of week.
Pressure-test the IHT & benefits triggers
Signal validationBook three 30-minute calls: one IHT-focused wealth manager, one group-risk broker, one recently-hired Head of Reward. Validate the April 2026 IHT-reform angle, the 'April flex-window' timing, and the language that resonates vs. current free-will campaigns.