GARY'S STORY
From The Merchant Navy
To Protecting Family Legacies
"Responsibility has been the constant throughout my life.
Whether I was navigating ships across the Atlantic or helping families plan for the future, the principles have always been the same.
Plan ahead.
Protect the people who depend on you. Make the right decisions before they're needed. "
- Gary Scottorn
A Life At Sea
After leaving school, I joined the Merchant Navy as a Deck Officer, spending seven years navigating everything from offshore supply vessels and small North Sea coasters to 90,000-ton high-speed container ships trading around the world.
It was an incredible experience, demanding discipline, responsibility, and the ability to make calm decisions under pressure. But after years at sea, I wanted a different challenge and a life that allowed me to build something of my own.
Building Ensign
An unexpected conversation introduced me to the world of financial services, and I began my career with Royal Life in Nottingham. Very quickly, I realised that success came not from cold calling, but from building relationships, trust, and creating value for introducers and clients alike.
After three years, I established my own business — Ensign, named after the Merchant Navy flag and inspired by the values of service, reliability, and professionalism that had shaped my life at sea.
Over the following years, Ensign grew into a highly successful financial services business. After securing our very first housebuilder relationship with Standen Homes, we entered the highly competitive world of new-build homes and steadily built relationships with many of the UK’s leading developers, including David Wilson Homes, Barratt Homes, Miller Homes, Persimmon, Bloor Homes, Redrow, and many others.
As the business expanded, so did the inevitable growing pains that come with success. Teams grew, managers needed managers, and the pressures of the fast-moving new-build market demanded people who could cope under immense pressure and still deliver results. To survive in that environment, people had to be tough — sometimes Rottweiler tough.
Estate Planning Became My Passion
“We cannot avoid most taxes in life. But in my opinion, there is one tax that is often largely optional with the right planning.”
I became determined to help families legally protect more of what they had worked a lifetime to build. Over the years, I estimate that I have helped clients preserve more than
£1.5 Billion
of family wealth
Today
After 35 years in financial services, I decided it was enough. The mortgage business I had built had become something much larger than I wanted to run, and it was time for a new direction.
Yet throughout my career, one subject had increasingly become my passion: Estate Planning and Inheritance Tax Planning.
We cannot avoid most taxes in life. But in my opinion, there is one tax that is often largely optional with the right planning — Inheritance Tax.
I became determined to help families legally protect more of what they had worked a lifetime to build. Over the years, I estimate that I have helped clients preserve more than £1.5 billion of family wealth through sensible, carefully structured inheritance tax planning.
So, I sold the business, made a clean break, and devoted myself fully to what had become my real professional passion — helping families protect their estates and legally reduce unnecessary inheritance tax.
That is how Trafalgar Estate Planning Ltd was born.
And yes — I had to continue the naval tradition.
Today, Trafalgar combines over 35 years of financial planning experience with specialist estate planning expertise to help families protect assets, reduce unnecessary inheritance tax, and ensure their wishes are carried out properly.
Thought
Through
Legally.
Sense Checked
Financially
