Europe

Act for a long standing UK family office overseeing UK and offshore trusts holding a substantial UK commercial real estate portfolio and diversified non UK liquid investments, with our advice focused on family governance and long term succession, including refining the family constitution, clarifying decision making and trustee oversight arrangements, and supporting next generation engagement and education. Alongside governance-led structuring, we advise on tax and trust strategy, corporate and fund structuring, debt finance, charitable planning, and the restructuring of trust and property holdings in response to changes in UK tax policy and Business Property Relief, delivering coordinated, multi jurisdictional advice across the UK, Europe and beyond. 
 

Act for a billionaire former hedge fund manager on the establishment and operation of a family office and downstream investment structuring, including planning for UK non-dom regime changes and the client’s phased UK exit, reviewing tax structuring for significant fund interests and ongoing US-linked compensation, and coordinating UK/US private client teams to design a control-appropriate holding framework aligned with wider dynastic succession objectives.

Acted for the family of the former chairman of a large multinational, advising on succession and cross-border estate planning issues including: (i) implementing a bespoke hybrid trust/corporate structure—working with Israeli counsel—to give effect to divorce-related arrangements for the client’s adult child while protecting inherited trust assets and avoiding UK and Israeli tax leakage; and (ii) coordinating multi-jurisdictional estate planning for the client’s widow (Israel-resident), to streamline probate and enable efficient succession across assets and beneficiaries in the UK, US, Israel, Jersey, Spain and Belgium.

We act for an international single-family office established for a Lebanese business-owning family, with operations centred in Switzerland and Dubai, providing ongoing strategic advice on multi-generational governance (including fourth-generation engagement), the evolving regulatory profile of the family office and its interaction with Swiss regulation, and the negotiation and structuring of investment terms.

Advised a Italian-born UHNW client, UK-resident and married to a US national, on reviewing the impact of the 2024 Autumn Budget reforms on an existing Bahamian trust and wider estate planning, and on developing a coordinated restructuring plan aligning trust governance, family succession and long-term philanthropic/impact objectives with the evolving UK tax landscape.

Acting for a UK family office overseeing UK and offshore trusts holding a substantial UK commercial real estate portfolio (including hotels, student accommodation and retail), advising over the past 12 months on governance and succession planning (including drafting a family constitution), trustee liaison across jurisdictions, next-generation engagement and education, and UK–France succession and tax structuring in relation to French property holdings, including support on disposals.

Continue to advise a UK-based private equity manager (US/UK taxpayer) on long-term succession planning, including implementing novel trust planning to enable the contribution of carried interest to a trust ahead of deemed domicile, and providing ongoing US/UK advice on trust restructuring, co-investment and carried interest arrangements, with structuring tailored to the family’s circumstances including a minor child with additional needs and restrictions on asset ownership.

Advised a UK resident shareholder holding just under 25% of a global conglomerate on the impact of forthcoming changes to Business Property Relief, including preparing a detailed options analysis to mitigate inheritance tax exposure while supporting medium term succession and governance objectives. Our advice focused in particular on the potential interposition of a new family holding company to strengthen family governance by consolidating decision making within the client’s branch of the family, facilitate dividend flows and reinvestment for an increasingly international shareholder base, enable selective buy outs of family members, and support longer term tax efficiency, alongside advice on associated corporate structuring, management services arrangements and the preparation of briefing materials to support wider family engagement.

We act for the widow of a highly successful commodities trader on probate, trust administration and long term succession and philanthropic planning, including acting as executor and trustee of the will trust, structuring provision for children through an accumulation and maintenance trust and a Jersey limited partnership invested in a family unit trust, and advising on substantial lifetime gifting ahead of anticipated changes to inheritance tax and Business Property Relief. Recent work has encompassed gifts of Scottish residential and commercial property and trading business interests, employee gifting, further funding of partnership and trust structures, coordination of charitable planning for a family foundation, and ongoing estate planning advice for both the client and the adult children, delivered with close attention to governance and tax efficiency across generations.

We act as the primary point of contact to the Family Office for worldwide tax, estate planning and asset protection queries for a Monaco-resident principal and the related trust/corporate structures established for his children, providing multi-level structuring advice (trust and corporate) and coordinating local counsel across jurisdictions to deliver project-managed, cross-border solutions, including succession planning for significant Jersey family trusts (governance and potential migration), coordination between Jersey and Australian structures to support obligations to children from two marriages (including entrepreneurial support for older children), and advice on incentivisation arrangements, with strong potential for ongoing multi-jurisdictional work as the children’s circumstances evolve.