Joanna is a Partner in the Wills & Estates and Tax & Trusts teams.
Experienced in wealth management and asset protection through the creation of tax efficient wills, the establishment of trusts and settlements, the utilisation of tax reliefs and exemptions, care fees planning, and succession strategies for the transfer of business and property interests.
In addition, Joanna advises on estate administration, providing support with tax returns, applications for probate and administration, the collection of assets and settlement of debts, preparation of estate accounts, distributions to beneficiaries and variations of a will to mitigate inheritance tax liability, lasting powers of attorney and Court of Protection matters and regularly accepts appointments as a professional attorney or deputy for vulnerable clients.
Working for private individuals and families throughout the UK and for estate executors, administrators and trustees. She advises high-net-worth individuals, farming families and those with significant inherited wealth or commercial interests.
Recent examples of how Joanna has supported clients include:
- developing a succession strategy for a farming family through lifetime planning, lasting powers of attorney, tax efficient wills and the creation of a fund to support a disabled child;
- supporting the executors of a complex estate, requiring specialist advice on the exemptions available under capital tax rules that applied before the current rules on inheritance tax came into force and helping with the apportionment of tax liability between executors, trustees and the recipients of lifetime gifts;
- providing ongoing advice to the property and financial affairs attorneys of an elderly lady with undiagnosed Asperger’s syndrome and acting as proxy for one of the attorneys at meetings with the lady in which important financial decisions are taken; and
- providing ongoing advice to the executors of an estate in which the beneficiaries have fallen out and there is a need for transparency and even-handedness to avoid the executors’ conduct being called into question.