Emma Clarke

Emma specialises in advising on complex wills, mitigating Inheritance Tax, trust creation and administration, and estate administration – supporting business owners, high-net-worth individuals, families, individuals, elderly clients, and vulnerable individuals to plan for the future, and ensure the smooth transfer of assets across generations.

Holding full STEP (Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners) membership, Emma’s areas of expertise include Lasting Powers of Attorney, cross-border estates, declarations of trust, and complex succession planning involving trusts and family-owned businesses, alongside acting as an independent administrator of complex and contentious estates, and being appointed as a deputy or attorney for clients who no longer have mental capacity.

Examples of Emma’s work include:

• Supporting lifetime tax planning for business owners by creating Lifetime Trusts to hold company shares for future generations.
• Advising on deeds of variation to incorporate a legacy to ensure sufficient funds are passed to charity to claim the reduced IHT rate of 36%.
• Drafting wills that create either a Discretionary Trust or a Disabled Persons Trust for families with children who have SEND needs.
• Acting as the independent administrator on estates where the families do not get along and cannot work together.
• Dealing with estates involving assets in the US, Guernsey, and Germany.
• Revoking a current Grant of Probate and obtaining a new grant in favour of the executor’s attorneys due to the loss of capacity of the executor during the administration of the estate.
• Dealing with an estate where genealogists needed to be appointed to locate the intestate beneficiaries who would now be entitled to benefit.
• Advising on creating life interest trust as a way of protecting assets from care costs, influences of others, second marriages, and/or blended families.