The ex-Morgan Stanley associate helping the bereaved: “This is better than PE or banking”

Edward Kerr has worked in investment banking and in private equity. Now he does neither. Kerr, who graduated with a 1st in economics from UCL nine years ago, left his private equity job in May 2025. Now he singlehandedly runs a platform to help the newly bereaved.

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“I want to solve the fact that death-related administration is a painful process,” says Kerr. After teaching himself to code in his spare time, he’s used AI to help create Willow, a site offering support through the bureaucracy of bereavement.

It’s an issue that Kerr is familiar with. After leaving Morgan Stanley’s investment banking team in 2021, he joined Montagu Private Equity where he spent nearly two years as an investment manager. There, he worked with a funeral business and sat in board meetings as an observer. “I saw bereaved relatives who were trying to manage estates and no one said it was an easy business,” Kerr says. 

There are already UK sites helping with the admin of dying, but Kerr says Willow is different because he’s pitching as an employee benefit to corporate clients. “This is the differentiator,” he says. “If you’re a legal firm, a private equity firm or a bank and your employees are having to take weeks off to deal with death admin, the numbers can stack up.” Willow offers a concierge service to help chase institutions and close queries. 

It sounds labour intensive and for the moment Kerr is the only employee. “I’ve been saving for the past few years to do this,” he says. “It’s still very early. I can fund my own salary but I expect to seek funding when I hire other people.” 

It’s a sad area to operate in, but Kerr says it’s a rewarding job: “I want to help vulnerable people and have a positive impact.” Death administration is relatively uncatered for: “The space is morbid and it gets less attention.”

Like many in banking and private equity, Kerr fundamentally wanted to do his own thing. The hours in both banking and private equity can be hard, he says, although private equity is more rewarding because you’re working with founders. 

Now Kerr is that founder. “I like the fact that there’s an enormous mountain to climb,” he says. You must have “luck and belief” to succeed, he adds. Banking and private equity taught him to “overthink everything.” However, Kerr admits that he overlooked the importance of some contributors to success, like marketing and promoting the product. “Yes you need a solid product but I’d underestimated the importance of distribution,” he says. 

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