Tailored support for individuals and families
Specialising in complex wealth structuring, we work closely with individuals and families based in the UK and overseas to protect their wealth now and in the future.
Our team will guide you through the available tax and succession planning opportunities and provide effective strategies to deal with issues which could impact the transfer of wealth including marital breakdown, financial immaturity, mental incapacity and providing for disabled beneficiaries.
We support individuals, families and trustees in the establishment and administration of trusts and other estate planning structures. We also advise on the ongoing management of existing trusts, including changes of trustees, restructuring and taxation.
We know that each and every client is unique so we spend time gaining a thorough understanding of your specific circumstances and what is important to you and your family with regards to succession. We will then work with you to manage your estate in a way that is tax-efficient and fulfils your wishes for your family’s future.
Some of the areas our specialist estate planning, tax and trust lawyers advise upon include:
As a trustee, you are responsible for looking after assets on behalf of beneficiaries. This requires up-to-date knowledge of trust law and the reporting requirements that go with it. If you fail to exercise care when performing your duties, you may incur personal liability and become financially liable for losses to which you have contributed.
We help trustees stay on top of their obligations. We can assist in the administration of the trust to the required standard, removing the burden from trustees and avoiding HMRC penalties. Our service covers a range of tasks including:
Whether you wish to create a trust or are a trustee yourself, we have the expertise to assist you. We offer a complete service, from trust formation right through to ongoing trust management and reporting. You can be confident of meeting all legal and financial obligations for the life of the trust and beyond.
Trustees are responsible for managing the trust efficiently to protect the assets and interests of the beneficiaries.
As part of this, there are several legal duties that you must fulfil, and five statutory powers which you may use to carry out your duties. Failure to comply with your duties and use your powers honestly can have serious consequences, including personal liability for any losses, so it is important to understand what your duties and powers are.
The duties of a trustee
The five statutory powers of trustees
Why is this important?
If a trustee fails to discharge their duties, or oversteps the limits of their power, they may be held personally liable for any loss or damage suffered. The trustee may also be removed from their position. It is therefore important for trustees to understand their duties and powers and act with the proper standard of care when managing the trust.
For more information or advice about your duties as a trustee, please contact us.
Creating a lifetime trust, such as a family trust, can help ensure that your assets pass tax-efficiently to your loved ones, while protecting trust assets from assessment for residential care fees. We can help you plan ahead and preserve family wealth for the next generation.
Created by your will and taking effect on death, a will trust can be an effective way of passing wealth to your loved ones while avoiding unnecessary Inheritance Tax.
If you are a foreign national living in Britain or have overseas interests that may be subject to taxation abroad as well as here, then your estate plan will need to take into account multiple jurisdictions. This adds more complexity but can also create opportunities for reducing your tax liabilities.
Our international estate planning solicitors can assist you with effective strategies for structuring your global wealth. We can help you:
Our team is made up of experts in international tax law and estate planning who work with clients around the world. However large your estate and wherever it is located, we can help you put the right structures in place to ensure it is passed down intact. Please contact us for a confidential discussion about your needs.
For UK/US tax advice, please contact our UK/US tax and estate planning lawyers.
Estate planning is essential to protecting your wealth for future generations. It is not just about saving tax, but ensuring that, when the time comes, all your assets go to the right people at the time and in the manner you want them to, as tax-efficiently as possible. Whether your focus is on preserving a family business, controlling your wealth, or shielding foreign assets from unnecessary taxation, we can help you minimise your liabilities and ensure the best possible outcome.
Estate planning encompasses everything involved in preparing for life’s eventualities, including death and incapacity. It involves creating an overall plan for how your assets will be managed, disposed of or distributed after death, including how taxes are to be paid and which heirs or charities should receive what you’ve left behind.
Many confuse estate planning with making a will, but they are not the same thing. While will-making is an important part of estate planning, your strategy may also include:
Ultimately, estate planning is about creating the best legal structures for preserving wealth for future generations. Some of the benefits include:
It is not possible to achieve these benefits with a will alone. Wills, trusts and other wealth-management structures often work better when combined than individually.
Inheritance Tax (IHT) is charged on death at 40% of the value of assets over a certain threshold, which at the moment is £325,000. If no reliefs were applied to an estate worth £1 million, IHT of £270,000 would be due.
The burden of IHT has increased significantly over the last decade because the threshold above which tax is charged has not changed for over a decade unlike the value of UK property. However, there are exemptions and reliefs that provide opportunities to mitigate your exposure to tax. You could, for example:
A professionally drawn estate plan, with proper tax advice, is the best way to reduce your IHT liability and ensure your interests are protected. Your solicitor will be happy to discuss your options in confidence.
A Lasting Power of Attorney is a legal document that allows someone to make decisions on your behalf should you become unable to do so yourself. You can give instructions on what should happen to your money, health or well-being in the event of old age, illness or injury that affects your mental capacity. While a will ensures your wishes are carried out after death, a Lasting Power of Attorney is created to protect your interests during your lifetime.
Find more information on our lasting power of attorney FAQs page.
Need some more information? Make an enquiry below
Trusts, tax & estate planning key contacts
Partner - Head of Private Wealth
Talk to Peter about UK trusts, tax & estate planning, International trusts, tax & estate planning, Private wealth, Probate and US/UK Tax & estate planning
Specialising in complex wealth structuring, we work closely with individuals and families based in the UK and overseas to protect their wealth now and in the future.
What are lasting powers of attorney? Why make an LPA ? What does it cover? When can an LPA be used? What information is needed? Our guide on making an LPA covers everything you need to know when considering giving another person certain authority to make decisions, in circumstances where you no longer have the mental capacity to do so on your own.
We have put together a helpful list of the important tax and estate planning tips you should be thinking about during, and in the aftermath of, the coronavirus pandemic.
Recent experience
For clients who own trading businesses, trusts can be useful succession and tax planning vehicles to ensure the preservation of our clients’ wealth. For example, it may be possible to transfer shares in a business into a trust free from inheritance tax, while also optimising the capital gains tax position.
UK TRUSTS, TAX AND ESTATE PLANNING
Case study
For clients who own trading businesses, trusts can be useful succession and tax planning vehicles to ensure the preservation of our clients’ wealth. For example, it may be possible to transfer shares in a business into a trust free from inheritance tax, while also optimising the capital gains tax position.
Where clients wish to provide for their children and grandchildren (e.g. for the provision of school fees), it can be prudent to create a trust of up to the available inheritance tax allowance (known as the nil rate band). There will be no inheritance tax on creation and a new trust of this type can be created every seven years. Also, if clients have surplus income, outright gifts or gifts into trust out of this surplus income can be made which are completely exempt from inheritance tax.
UK TRUSTS, TAX AND ESTATE PLANNING
Case study
Where clients wish to provide for their children and grandchildren (e.g. for the provision of school fees), it can be prudent to create a trust of up to the available inheritance tax allowance (known as the nil rate band). There will be no inheritance tax on creation and a new trust of this type can be created every seven years. Also, if clients have surplus income, outright gifts or gifts into trust out of this surplus income can be made which are completely exempt from inheritance tax.
“The team is first-class – knowledgeable, approachable and offers excellent value for money”
Legal 500, 2020
Related content
Considering estate and succession planning during your lifetime gives you the opportunity to structure your affairs in a flexible and tax-efficient way for the short and long term. You may be looking to provide for children or grandchildren without them having control too soon, preserve business assets, or protect a disabled child. To ensure that your wealth is structured in line with your priorities, you need an expert adviser to provide you with creative and individually tailored advice. While the scope for people domiciled in the UK to create new trusts tax-efficiently is more restricted than in the past, there are still a number of planning options.
Our team will guide you through the available tax and succession planning opportunities and provide effective strategies to deal with issues which could impact the transfer of wealth including marital breakdown, financial immaturity, mental incapacity and providing for disabled beneficiaries.
We support individuals, families and trustees in the establishment and administration of trusts and other estate planning structures. We also advise on the ongoing management of existing trusts, including changes of trustees, restructuring and taxation.
We know that each and every client is unique so we spend time gaining a thorough understanding of your specific circumstances and what is important to you and your family with regards to succession. We will then work with you to manage your estate in a way that is tax-efficient and fulfils your wishes for your family’s future.
Some of the areas our specialist estate planning, tax and trust lawyers advise upon include:
Want to connect? Select someone below to view their profile.
Partner - Head of Private Wealth
As a trustee, you are responsible for looking after assets on behalf of beneficiaries. This requires up-to-date knowledge of trust law and the reporting requirements that go with it. If you fail to exercise care when performing your duties, you may incur personal liability and become financially liable for losses to which you have contributed.
We help trustees stay on top of their obligations. We can assist in the administration of the trust to the required standard, removing the burden from trustees and avoiding HMRC penalties. Our service covers a range of tasks including:
Whether you wish to create a trust or are a trustee yourself, we have the expertise to assist you. We offer a complete service, from trust formation right through to ongoing trust management and reporting. You can be confident of meeting all legal and financial obligations for the life of the trust and beyond.
Trustees are responsible for managing the trust efficiently to protect the assets and interests of the beneficiaries.
As part of this, there are several legal duties that you must fulfil, and five statutory powers which you may use to carry out your duties. Failure to comply with your duties and use your powers honestly can have serious consequences, including personal liability for any losses, so it is important to understand what your duties and powers are.
The duties of a trustee
The five statutory powers of trustees
Why is this important?
If a trustee fails to discharge their duties, or oversteps the limits of their power, they may be held personally liable for any loss or damage suffered. The trustee may also be removed from their position. It is therefore important for trustees to understand their duties and powers and act with the proper standard of care when managing the trust.
For more information or advice about your duties as a trustee, please contact us.
Creating a lifetime trust, such as a family trust, can help ensure that your assets pass tax-efficiently to your loved ones, while protecting trust assets from assessment for residential care fees. We can help you plan ahead and preserve family wealth for the next generation.
Created by your will and taking effect on death, a will trust can be an effective way of passing wealth to your loved ones while avoiding unnecessary Inheritance Tax.
If you are a foreign national living in Britain or have overseas interests that may be subject to taxation abroad as well as here, then your estate plan will need to take into account multiple jurisdictions. This adds more complexity but can also create opportunities for reducing your tax liabilities.
Our international estate planning solicitors can assist you with effective strategies for structuring your global wealth. We can help you:
Our team is made up of experts in international tax law and estate planning who work with clients around the world. However large your estate and wherever it is located, we can help you put the right structures in place to ensure it is passed down intact. Please contact us for a confidential discussion about your needs.
For UK/US tax advice, please contact our UK/US tax and estate planning lawyers.
Estate planning is essential to protecting your wealth for future generations. It is not just about saving tax, but ensuring that, when the time comes, all your assets go to the right people at the time and in the manner you want them to, as tax-efficiently as possible. Whether your focus is on preserving a family business, controlling your wealth, or shielding foreign assets from unnecessary taxation, we can help you minimise your liabilities and ensure the best possible outcome.
Estate planning encompasses everything involved in preparing for life’s eventualities, including death and incapacity. It involves creating an overall plan for how your assets will be managed, disposed of or distributed after death, including how taxes are to be paid and which heirs or charities should receive what you’ve left behind.
Many confuse estate planning with making a will, but they are not the same thing. While will-making is an important part of estate planning, your strategy may also include:
Ultimately, estate planning is about creating the best legal structures for preserving wealth for future generations. Some of the benefits include:
It is not possible to achieve these benefits with a will alone. Wills, trusts and other wealth-management structures often work better when combined than individually.
Inheritance Tax (IHT) is charged on death at 40% of the value of assets over a certain threshold, which at the moment is £325,000. If no reliefs were applied to an estate worth £1 million, IHT of £270,000 would be due.
The burden of IHT has increased significantly over the last decade because the threshold above which tax is charged has not changed for over a decade unlike the value of UK property. However, there are exemptions and reliefs that provide opportunities to mitigate your exposure to tax. You could, for example:
A professionally drawn estate plan, with proper tax advice, is the best way to reduce your IHT liability and ensure your interests are protected. Your solicitor will be happy to discuss your options in confidence.
A Lasting Power of Attorney is a legal document that allows someone to make decisions on your behalf should you become unable to do so yourself. You can give instructions on what should happen to your money, health or well-being in the event of old age, illness or injury that affects your mental capacity. While a will ensures your wishes are carried out after death, a Lasting Power of Attorney is created to protect your interests during your lifetime.
Find more information on our lasting power of attorney FAQs page.
Recent experience
Case study
For clients who own trading businesses, trusts can be useful succession and tax planning vehicles to ensure the preservation of our clients’ wealth. For example, it may be possible to transfer shares in a business into a trust free from inheritance tax, while also optimising the capital gains tax position.
Case study
Where clients wish to provide for their children and grandchildren (e.g. for the provision of school fees), it can be prudent to create a trust of up to the available inheritance tax allowance (known as the nil rate band). There will be no inheritance tax on creation and a new trust of this type can be created every seven years. Also, if clients have surplus income, outright gifts or gifts into trust out of this surplus income can be made which are completely exempt from inheritance tax.
Need some more information? Make an enquiry below.
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