Trust & Succession Planning

Assisting in ensuring orderly and effective succession planning sits at the heart of our client work, both domestically and internationally.

Allied to the question of succession to family wealth is its long term preservation for the benefit of future generations or chosen charitable purposes.

We work closely with our individual clients, their families and their advisory teams to understand and refine their short and long-term objectives, to recognise and address their concerns and to build a practical, efficient and robust succession plan to suit them.  Understanding what matters most to our clients allows us to create a plan recognising and allowing for specific wishes and aspirations, be those selling or retaining a business, making a retirement plan, gifting specific assets, meeting philanthropic aims or dealing with wealth transition across borders.

Responsibly preserving wealth for the next generation (and beyond) is frequently a key consideration. We provide effective means of achieving that aim and are experts in the creation of all forms of trusts and their equivalents in an estate planning context. Our advice includes consideration of the inheritance, capital gains and income tax implications of any potential structuring.

What sets us apart from other firms is how collaboratively we work with other teams within the firm and with our clients’ other professional advisers.  In doing so, we are able to create holistic plans and long-term structures to preserve, administer and enhance multi-generational family wealth.

How we help

• Wealth transition – We ensure that the transition of wealth from generation to generation is effective, efficient and focussed on the preservation of family wealth for the long term
• Tax advice – We advise on all aspects of capital gains, income and inheritance tax, as well as on commercial and property transactional tax matters
• Family governance – We take care to ensure that the governance and administration of family wealth is both appropriate and reflective of the need for risk management. This helps to avoid the unnecessary dissipation of wealth, optimise performance and protect the integrity of both the family and their businesses alike
• Wills – We draft tax efficient wills for clients and advise on lasting powers of attorney and living wills so as to provide our clients with peace of mind and certainty
• Estate administration – We advise on all types of probates and have a particular expertise in advising on those involving complex trusts and overseas property. We are also highly experienced in advising on the probates of international individuals with assets in the UK
• Lifetime giving – We advise clients on all aspects of lifetime giving, including philanthropic and environmentally / socially responsible investment