Next generation
Trust structuring and estate planning for the next generation of an internationally mobile family with a history of entrepreneurship and wealth creation.
Estate planning and philanthropy
Estate planning for a highly successful UK businessperson with an interest in supporting charity and a range of other causes.
Cross-border estates and succession
Estate planning for a prominent entrepreneur with a particular focus on establishing a family partnership for the financial education and participation of the next generation.
Trusts: domestic and international
Domestic and international trust and estate planning. Due to the age and special circumstances of some of the trusts, this required a strong working knowledge of historic trust legislation.
Family office and professional trustees
Assisting in the provision and co-ordination of corporate tax, corporate and M&A, financial services and trust advice to a large and active family office and professional trustees.
Cross-border philanthropy and trusts
Planning and structuring advice for the migration of a long-establish charitable trust between two international financial centres.
Trust dispute
Advising on the settlement of a long-running dispute between the trustees and beneficiaries of a complex non-UK trust structure concerning both the historic administration of the trusts and disputes between family members about their respective interests.
Taxation of financial products
Advising the tax departments of international private banks on the UK tax treatment of investment products and structuring investment portfolios for UK resident non-UK domiciled individuals.
Domicile advice
Advising ultra-high-net-worth, non-UK domiciled clients on structuring their affairs in light of the post-2017 deemed domicile regime, including implications of becoming deemed domiciled for clients’ non-UK trust and asset-holding structures, and ensuring that trusts retain protected settlement status.
New build purchase
Acting on the purchase of a new build house on the boundary to a Royal Park and the necessary new build warranties for mortgage.
Development structuring and sales
Acting for a developer on the development structuring and subsequent sale of prime and super prime central London apartments.
Purchase of the freehold
Acting for a tenant participating in a collective enfranchisement to buy the freehold of a prime central London residential building, including advising on both participation as a tenant and investment in the investment company.
Sale for development
Advising trustees on the sale of a farm to a developer conditional on the buyer and the land promoter obtaining planning permission.
Tenants’ rights of first refusal
Advising a company on the sale of the ground rents from several mixed use buildings and guiding them through the tenants’ rights of first refusal.
Development restructuring and developer exit
Acting for a developer on its exit from a completed super prime residential development and the handover to the tenant owned management company.
Resolution of defective title for leasehold property
Acting for an individual in the purchase and mortgage of a leasehold property and resolving a significant defect in title.
High value estate
Advising two beneficiaries of an estate worth in excess of $100m on the strategy for resolving the significant underrated tax liabilities of the deceased in both the UK and US; this involved careful consideration of international tax treaties and application of EU law to reduce the incidence of criminal penalties.
Coordinating tax statuses
Assisting a non-resident Indian family with substantial retained business interests in India in creating a family office to help coordinate their diverse tax statuses and the family’s asset holding structures.
Trustee interest disposal
Advising trustees on the proposed sale of their interest in a significant trading business abroad where the trustee wished to dispose of the asset before considering the distribution of the proceeds and the winding up the trust in the context of a long-running family dispute.
Multi-jurisdictional and multi-generational family (BIO)
Advising the family office of a large, multi-jurisdictional and multi-generational family, with significant trusts managed from the Isle of Man. This has included an annual review of the trust tax pool calculations and ensuring that these are appropriately declared where relevant in individual beneficiaries’ UK tax returns.
International estate and succession planning
Reviewing the existing estate and succession planning and family governance arrangements for an international family with homes, business interests and other assets in numerous jurisdictions. Working closely with the family office to devise and implement arrangements which better reflect the family’s needs and objectives.
Wealth protection for a family
Leading a project which involved protecting a family’s significant private wealth. This included setting up two new trusts in two different jurisdictions and the project included advising on asset protection strategies, confidentiality / privacy / reporting considerations and UK tax and family governance issues.
Bi-cameral protectorship and investment committee structure
Devising and implementing a highly bespoke bi-cameral protectorship and investment committee structure for a group of trusts which control a Russian client’s interest in a significant and publically quoted business.
Multi-family office
Advising in relation to the formation of a multi-family office for two families who had decided to pool their investments. This included advice in relation to the regulatory aspects, creation of an in-house hedge fund, recruitment of a team of investment professionals from a major international bank and advice in relation to executive incentivisation.
Estate litigation
Acting for the heirs of the estate of a wealthy businessman and his wife relating to an acrimonious dispute which involved questions of capacity, theft, and trust issues, as well as significant undisclosed tax liabilities in the UK and US, and we have been overseeing multiple international proceedings for many years. We have advised on probate, Court of Protection and High Court proceedings.
US clients
Acting for two existing US clients on opposite sides of a wholly arms-length transaction where we bought (and sold) a Mayfair townhouse within the space of four hours at a price of around £30m. The seller was contractually required to service a notice of claim for enfranchisement on the Grosvenor Estate and to assign the benefit of the claim.
