This week on whiteballoon insights we are delighted to catch up with Emma Knewstub of Laurelo, to hear about the journey of their business and the values and ethos that underpin everything they do.
Q: Hi Emma, Laurelo is an independent family-run business founded in 2013. Can you please tell us about its history?
Absolutely. Laurelo was founded by my partner in life and business, Michael Roughan after his own family experienced first-hand just how cold, confusing and transactional probate could feel following a bereavement. He came away from that experience believing families deserved better, clearer communication, transparent costs and genuine human support. He valued the time and empathy the funeral director offered, we work tirelessly to maintain that same level of care in the probate and post death administrative process.
What started as a small family business around a kitchen table has grown into a national probate provider supporting families, but the ethos hasn’t changed. We’ve never wanted to become a faceless corporate firm driven by billable hours. We’ve always believed probate should feel personal, accessible and compassionate.
The growth has been incredible over the last few years, but we’re very protective of our culture. We still make decisions around people, not processes, and I think families feel that difference when they come to us, and thankfully the feedback tells us we’re doing a good job of that too!
Q: We’ve known the Laurelo team for many years and watched with interest and excitement as you have grown and broadened your services. We’d love to hear about Laurelo’s new strategic partnership with The National Society of Allied and Independent Funeral Directors (SAIF).
We’re incredibly proud of our relationship with The National Society of Allied and Independent Funeral Directors. SAIF represents many of the values we care deeply about, independence, integrity, community and genuinely putting families first.
For us, this partnership is about much more than business development. Funeral directors are often the very first people families turn to after a death, and they play such an important role in setting the tone for the support that follows. We want to work alongside independent funeral directors in a way that complements the care they already provide, not competes with it.
There’s also a shared belief that bereaved families deserve proper education and guidance around probate and estate administration, because so many people still don’t fully understand what happens after a death until they’re suddenly thrown into it themselves.
We’re excited about collaborating further with SAIF members over the coming years and continuing to raise standards across the bereavement sector together.
Q: The highest standards of client and colleague care are at the core of Laurelo’s ethos. You have achieved Gold Award Status with the Hospice UK Compassionate Employers Programme. How do your values and ethos shape what you do?
Receiving Gold status through the Hospice UK Compassionate Customer Care programme was a huge moment for us because it validated something we’ve always believed, that professionalism and compassion should go hand in hand. We even received a congratulatory personal message from Tony Hadley – singer of ‘GOLD’ from Spandau Ballet!
Bereavement affects absolutely everything. People aren’t just dealing with paperwork; they’re often exhausted, frightened, grieving and overwhelmed. That means how you communicate matters enormously. Tone matters. Patience matters. Listening matters.
The same applies internally too. Our team deal with emotionally difficult situations every single day, so colleague wellbeing is just as important as client care. We’ve worked very hard to create a culture where people feel supported, heard and trusted.
I think businesses sometimes underestimate how much families remember how they were made to feel during difficult periods in their lives. We never want people to feel like a case number.
Q: We love that Laurelo is available on the phone 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and that you offer in-home visits throughout the UK. Why is this level of service important to you?
Because grief doesn’t operate between 9 and 5. People don’t stop worrying because an office is closed. Some of the most important conversations we have with families happen late in the evening, at weekends, or sat around somebody’s dining table with a cup of tea.
In-home visits are especially important to us because they remove barriers. Many people are intimidated by legal offices or simply don’t feel emotionally ready to sit in a formal environment after a bereavement. Meeting families where they feel safest and most comfortable changes the entire dynamic of the conversation.
We’ve built Laurelo around accessibility, warmth and real human connection. Technology is brilliant and we use it extensively, but there’s still huge value in looking somebody in the eye and helping them through one of the hardest periods of their life face-to-face.
Q: And do your two office dogs, Edie and Elbie, help to promote a sense of calm and wellbeing in what can, I imagine, be an emotionally demanding working environment?
Completely, although they’d probably say they’re the real directors of the company! They certainly dictate treats and walk times.
Edie and Elbie are a huge part of office life and they genuinely do make a difference. There’s something incredibly grounding about dogs in the workplace, particularly in a sector where conversations can be emotionally heavy. They have an uncanny ability to wander over to exactly the right person at exactly the right moment.
Clients love them too. They soften the environment instantly and make the office feel much more like a home than a corporate space, which is exactly what we want Laurelo to feel like.
Q: Are there any other new projects or initiatives that you would like to share with us?
We’ve got some really exciting projects underway at the moment. One we’re particularly passionate about is expanding our aftercare support for bereaved families. Probate is only one part of what people face after a death, and there’s often a huge emotional and practical void once the funeral is over.
We’re also continuing to invest heavily in education, communication and accessibility across the business, whether that’s improving the way we explain probate, supporting funeral directors and partners with resources, or developing technology behind the scenes to make the process smoother for families without losing the human element.
For us, innovation should never replace compassion, it should support it.
We have 2 very exciting AI projects in the pipeline too… we can’t reveal too much yet but safe to say AI won’t be replacing any of our face-to-face support or family interaction.
Q: And finally, is there a person, place or book that has influenced you, or has made a permanent impression on your life?
For me, it’s less about one single book or person and more about the experiences that change the way you see people. Bereavement has a way of stripping life back to what really matters: kindness, time, patience and human connection.
If there’s one lasting influence on Laurelo as a whole, it’s probably the understanding that people rarely remember the legal process itself. As a family we have been deeply affected by 3 significant losses over the last few years and we know more than most that when you’re grieving, one of the things you remember most vividly is whether somebody made you feel safe during one of the worst moments of your life.
This belief sits behind almost every decision we make as a business. I also hugely appreciate the Ted Lasso style of leadership and believe that if we can build a culture rooted in kindness, trust, humour and genuinely looking after one another, people do their best work and families ultimately feel the benefit of that too.
Thank you Emma, for sharing these insights.
To find out more about Laurelo and the services they provide, please visit the Laurelo website.