TEP is awarded by STEP, the global professional body for trust and estate practitioners. It is the leading qualification in the field worldwide. Sara qualified in October 2003 and has held the designation continuously for over twenty years. STEP members are bound by a strict code of professional conduct and required to keep their knowledge current through ongoing training.
Founder, SLS Wills and More
Sara Sheppard, TEP
A Trust and Estate Practitioner with thirty-eight years of experience. Vice-Chair of the Society of Will Writers Professional Standards Board, tutor at the College of Will Writing, and the founder of SLS Wills and More.
- Full TEP since 2003
- Fellow, Society of Will Writers
- SWW Regional Chair for Kent
- Vice-Chair, SWW Professional Standards Board
- Tutor, College of Will Writing
- Member, TAS Network
- Mentor to newly qualified Will writers
What the letters mean
Credentials, in plain English.
Estate planning is a sector where qualifications matter, and where most clients have no way of knowing which qualifications are meaningful and which are decorative. Here is what Sara's actually mean.
TEPTrust and Estate Practitioner FSWWFellow, Society of Will Writers The Society of Will Writers is the self-regulatory body for the profession in the UK. Fellowship is the senior tier of membership, awarded to practitioners who have demonstrated advanced knowledge, ethical practice and a sustained commitment to the profession. Members work to the SWW Code of Practice.
Vice-Chair, PSBProfessional Standards Board The Professional Standards Board is the body within the SWW responsible for the standards that govern the profession. As Vice-Chair, Sara helps shape and uphold those standards on behalf of the membership and the public.
TutorCollege of Will Writing The College of Will Writing trains the next generation of Will writers in England and Wales. As a tutor, Sara teaches courses to qualifying practitioners, including the Introduction to Probate and Estate Administration, which she co-teaches with Nick Ash, TEP.
MemberTAS Network The Trust Administration Services Network is a network of estate planning professionals working to high standards, supporting one another with complex matters and ongoing professional development.
MentorTo newly qualified Will writers Sara mentors newly qualified Will writers as part of her commitment to the profession. The work that comes out of SLS is the work the next generation is being taught to do.
View Sara’s profile on the Society of Will Writers directory
- November 1986Began career, NatWest Investments, Kent
- 2000Local accountancy practice, probate work
- October 2003Qualified TEP through STEP
- 2003 to 2017Private legal practice, East Kent
- 2017Founded SLS Wills and More
- 2020Became SWW Regional Chair for Kent (first term to 2024)
- October 2020Set up the active WhatsApp Group for Will Writers, still well-used today
- 2021Became FSWW (Fellow of the Society of Will Writers)
- 2023Became a College of Will Writing Tutor
- 2025Vice-Chair, SWW Professional Standards Board
- 2026SWW Regional Chair for Kent (second term)
- June 2026Published her book on Amazon: Business Succession Planning
Her story
Thirty-eight years, three industries, one focus.
Sara began her career in November 1986 at NatWest Investments in Kent, working in financial services. By 2000 she had moved into a local accountancy practice, where she handled probate work. It was during this period that she began studying with STEP and discovered a profession that brought together the legal, the financial and the human in a way that the rest of the industry rarely managed.
She qualified as a Trust and Estate Practitioner in October 2003. Through the early 2000s she moved into private legal practice, working at specialist solicitors firms across East Kent, where she built her experience across the full breadth of estate planning work: simple Wills, Complex Wills, trusts, Lasting Powers of Attorney, Court of Protection applications and probate. She qualified through the SWW route in parallel and became a Fellow.
By 2017, after years of watching clients struggle with the formality and inaccessibility of solicitors' offices, Sara set up SLS Wills and More. The premise was straightforward: estate planning advice should be properly qualified, properly explained and properly affordable, and clients should never feel rushed, patronised or sold to. Many would prefer to have these conversations at home, where they were comfortable, rather than in an unfamiliar office.
Nine years on, the firm has grown from Sara working alone to a team of consultants and support staff, with clients across England and Wales. Sara still meets clients personally and still drafts complex matters herself. She has also taken on a wider role in the profession.
The standard the firm works to is the standard Sara built her career on, and the standard she now helps set for the rest of the profession.
Her approach
How Sara works with clients.
The first thing Sara wants to understand about a client is who they are. Not the technical questions about assets and beneficiaries; those come later. The questions she asks first are about the people in the client's life, the relationships that matter, what the client is worried about, and what they want their plan to do.
Most clients arrive with a problem they have not quite articulated. They know they should have a Will, or they know a parent has died and the paperwork is overwhelming, or they have heard about Lasting Powers of Attorney but are not sure whether they need one. Sara's job, as she sees it, is to listen long enough to work out what the actual question is, and then answer it in a way that makes sense.
That means plain English, not legal language. It means examples, not abstractions. It means giving clients the time and the information to make a good decision rather than a quick one. And it means staying in touch afterwards, because a Will written in 2026 is not necessarily the right Will in 2031, and the relationship should outlast the document.
Sara meets many of her clients in person, at their homes. For clients further afield, she works by video and by telephone. The setting changes; the time and the care do not.
Teaching the profession
Educating the next generation of Will writers.
Sara is one of a small number of practising estate planners in England and Wales who also teach the profession formally. As a tutor at the College of Will Writing, she runs courses for qualifying Will writers and continuing practitioners. Her recent teaching has included the Introduction to Probate and Estate Administration, which she co-teaches with Nick Ash, TEP.
The course exists because most Will writers never see what happens to a Will after the testator dies. Sara's view is that you cannot draft a good Will without understanding how it gets used in practice. Teaching the end of the process produces better drafters at the start of it.
Beyond the formal teaching, Sara mentors newly qualified Will writers and contributes to the SWW Professional Standards Board, where she helps shape the standards that govern the profession. She was appointed Vice-Chair of the Board in 2025.
Since October 2020 Sara has run an active WhatsApp Group for Will writers across the UK. It started as a small space for practitioners to ask quick questions during the first lockdown and grew into a daily back-and-forth that is still well used today. For Sara it is the natural extension of the teaching: a connector for the profession and a quiet way of keeping standards up across firms that do not see each other in person from one year to the next.
Tutor
College of Will Writing
Vice-Chair (2025)
SWW Professional Standards Board
Regional Chair
SWW Kent (2020 to 2024, again 2026)
Convenor
Will writers' WhatsApp group, since October 2020
Mentor
Newly qualified Will writers
Member
STEP, SWW, TAS Network
Published
Sara's book.
Business Succession Planning
Helping you protect businesses, families and legacies
Sara has published a book drawing on more than three decades of estate planning practice and the questions she is asked most often by business owners. It is available on Amazon.
In the press
Speaking and media.
Sara appears regularly in industry and consumer media to discuss estate planning, Wills and the broader work of the profession.
Radio
Radio Ashford
Conversation on Will writing, Lasting Powers of Attorney and probate, with Sara discussing why making a Will matters even when you think you have nothing to leave.
Industry
The Society of Will Writers
Regular contributor, course leader and speaker on probate and estate administration.
Conference
Legal Growth Conference
Speaker and active member of the conference community.
For media or speaking enquiries, please get in touch. Get in touch.
“Estate planning is not about death. It is about the people you love, the things you have built, and making sure both are looked after when you cannot be there to do it yourself.”
Working with us
Booking Sara, or booking the team.
Sara is one of several consultants at SLS. Many clients ask to work with her specifically, and where her diary allows, she takes those instructions personally. For more complex matters, significant estates, complex trusts, business succession, contested or unusual circumstances, Sara is normally the lead consultant.
For most everyday Wills and LPAs, you will be looked after by one of our other consultants, all of whom are trained, mentored and supervised by Sara to work to the same standard. The standard the firm sells is the SLS standard, and every consultant works to it.
If you would like to work with Sara specifically, mention that when you book your free consultation and we will let you know her availability.
Talk to Sara
If you would like to work with Sara, the next step is a conversation.
Mention Sara when you book your free consultation and we will let you know her availability.
Book a consultation with Sara
Or call us on 01304 577 998