About
Edward advises internationally mobile families on their asset structuring, personal tax and succession planning wills, trusts and personal tax planning.
Edward advises internationally mobile families on their asset structuring, personal tax and succession planning wills, trusts and personal tax planning.
He has considerable expertise in the field of complex cross-border succession planning and focuses on high-value situations where legal and tax systems interact and clash. Edward has an affinity for civil law issues generally. He is a bilingual French speaker and fluent in Italian.
He has a particular interest in the impact of crisis events, such as incapacity on a family’s asset structures. In conjunction with overseas lawyers, he advises on cross-border estate, succession planning and complex tax investigation issues. He also advises clients on philanthropic matters.
Edward has lectured at industry conferences, as well as publishing articles in English and French on cross-border succession and tax issues. He is a contributor to Tolley’s Administration of Trusts and the author of the England and Wales Chapter in The World Trust Survey (Gothard & Shah) published by Oxford University Press. He is also co-author of the “Trusts, Trustees and the UK Anti Financial Crime Regime”, chapter (C11) in Glasson, The International Trust (3rd Ed. 2011). Most recently, he has co-authored with Iskra Doukova the UK chapter in the STEP Handbook for Advisers “Beneficial Ownership Registers” (August 2021, published by Global Law & Business).
Edward is a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) and the Capital Taxes Working Group of the Law Society’s Tax Law Committee. He attends HMRC’s Capital Taxes Liaison Group and is a past Chairman of the steering committee of the Cross-Border Estates Special Interest Group of STEP. He is also a member of the committee of the Thomas More Society.
Amongst various registered charities, he is a trustee of The Friends of the Institut Français, the David Brownlow Charitable Foundation, the Stanley Smith UK Horticultural Trust, the de Brye Charitable Trust and the St Francis Leprosy Guild.
After 22 years as a Partner, Edward stepped down to focus on key client relationships and became a Senior Advisor on 1 April 2025. He qualified in England and Wales, 1995.