FEATURE having been charmed by Wooden Spoon’s winning tactic of using sport to support children and young people with a disability or facing disadvantage across the UK and Ireland. While David may still struggle with rucking regulations long after removing his school tie for the final time, the long-standing Wooden Spoon member has successfully redressed another shortfall of his student days. “I was a shocking pupil,” David confessed to Spoonews. “I walked out of the doors of Highbury Grammar School in the January of 1965 with three O levels – that’s it. “My parents lived in council flats and couldn’t really afford to have me at school and so I left. “I went to the youth employment office and said I wanted to work in a bank because at that time banks were seen as a job for life,” he added. “I was told there were no vacancies in banking and so I was sent to a law firm instead.”
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SWITCH IN FORTUNES This chance change in career choice ultimately proved an extremely successful one. Demonstrating a dedication devoid during his academic education, David climbed the legal ladder from office messenger to solicitor – gaining the necessary qualifications by correspondence. After 26 years of operating in London’s West End, the leading private client lawyer helped set up Spratt Endicott Solicitors in Banbury, Oxfordshire in 2002 and now oversees a firm that has four offices and employs more than 140 staff. “I’ve worked incredibly hard to get where I am,” said David. “But I was very lucky to join Simmons & Simmons when I left school because they had a law library and a non-law library where I devoured books. That appetite for reading and learning has not stopped. “It sounds awful but I didn’t really like the discipline of school and couldn’t cope with being told what to do; but when I was left to myself I just got on with it and got all of the qualifications I needed.”
BENEVOLENT BOSS While David’s drive to business success required no shortage of self investment, the knowledge and prosperity it has brought have empowered him to help others. He became a monthly donor to Wooden Spoon after being alerted by a promotional leaflet to its track record for transforming the lives of children and regularly dons the charity’s distinctive striped tie. “A very dear friend of mine is a member of the
MCC and so occasionally I get invited to Lord’s for test matches as his guest and I make a point of wearing the tie,” he explained. “The number of people who come up and say hello simply because I’ve got a Wooden Spoon tie on always amazes me.” This sense of community among the charity’s members – and its ethos of spending money in the area in which it was raised – resonates with David, who ensures his own company is a good neighbour. Spratt Endicott is a sponsor of Wooden Spoon partner club Banbury and supports many local causes and organisations. The company’s staff also nominate and raise funds for a “charity of the year” and recently donated more than £4,000 to Katharine House Hospice. However, the benevolent boss was also quick to stress to Spoonews readers the importance of looking after their own financial wellbeing – if only to safeguard their future support of the children’s charity of rugby.
WHERE THERE’S A WILL... Sharing his expertise with fellow Wooden Spoon members, David said: “The biggest priority for anyone is to write a will. Only around 30 per cent of the country has one, which is crazy as in my view that is the first stage of proper tax planning.
“A year or so back I gave a talk to some delightful gentlemen,” he added. “Before I started my presentation I asked if anyone in the room would be happy for the government to decide where they went on holiday, where they stayed, how long they went there for and what they did while they were there. “They looked at me as though I was barmy, but my point was that if you work hard and create wealth and then die without a will, that is what you are doing. You are saying to the government ‘I can’t be bothered, you decide where my estate goes’.” David went on to explain that anyone with a desire to reduce their estate has a number of options open to them. The most common, he said, was for individuals to give money and assets away – on the condition they do so without strings – to family members and friends as, so as long as they survive for seven years after the gift, no tax is then due. “Of course, if you are giving money to charity, either while living, or as a gift in your will, then you don’t pay any tax,” he continued. “I have been writing wills for half a century, have written three books on them and overseen endless wills where money has been left to charities.” Although many people need little encouragement to give to a good cause, David explained that leaving a gift in a will can benefit the bank balances of both your chosen charity and your loved ones. “Under the current inheritance tax regime there is a zero rate on the first £325,000 of an individual’s estate but anything after that attracts tax at 40 per cent,” he said. “However, if you make a will and leave at least ten per cent of your estate to charity, the rest of your estate pays tax at 36 rather than 40 per cent; so you get a double saving. “Ultimately, making a will is all about choice – it is not expensive to do and in the grand scheme of things it can save tax, protect beneficiaries and your assets.”
STEADFAST SUPPORT With the knowledge to save others significant sums, David does not need to wear Wooden Spoon colours to raise warm smiles from his happy clients, but he has no intention of discarding his children’s charity of rugby regalia in the same speedy manner in which he cast aside his old school tie. “I simply wouldn’t dream of it,” he concluded. “What the charity does just appeals to me – it focuses on children, mixes fundraising with sport and does it so well. I will continue to wear the tie and try to spread the word among my rugby loving friends.” Autumn/Winter 2017
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