Sophie has been working in the Legacy sector for 10 years with a wide skillset from Executorship and Legacy Administration right through to Donor strategy.

on After graduating with a degree in English Literature in 2014, Sophie took a job as a Will Reader and Reporter for Smee and Ford. While at Smee and Ford, she read around 2,000 Wills per week to find any reference to charitable legacies.

An increasing interest in legacies led her to becoming an Assistant Legacy Officer with Cancer Research in 2016, before stepping up to be a Legacy Officer with their lay executor team in 2017. As a result of her time in this team, Sophie takes great interest in dealing with non-professional executors, guiding them through what can be an onerous process, at a particularly difficult time in their lives.

Wanting to gain better exposure to contentious and complex matters, she moved to the British Heart Foundation as a Legacy Officer in 2019, where she worked until 2022. Most recently, Sophie has been working as the Major Donor Manager for the Royal Society. During her time there, she created a strategy for increasing legacy activity, while also forging relationships with high-net-worth individuals, companies and trusts and foundations.

When not working, Sophie most enjoys spending time with her husband and their Italian Greyhound Twiggy in and around their home in Hackney Wick, East London.

"Sophie’s challenge to the IHT apportionment has secured an additional £75k for the charity (in the context of an annual budget of c £1m). Not only is she technically brilliant, but she is a pleasure to work with. I no longer spend any of my time thinking about legacies as I know they’re in safe hands- which is exactly what I wanted when we choose legacy link for our legacy admin.”

Nicola Burgess, Head of Finance, Oxford Hospitals Charity