Paul is a Partner in the Tax & Trusts and Wills & Estates teams.
He has a strong high net worth private client practice with clients based all over the UK and in particular the North West. Paul is a trustee for a number of high value private trusts and the protector for offshore trusts. He has experience advising clients on many types of wealth protection strategies including family investment companies.
Paul advises clients on estate planning issues, complex tax planning advice and the implementation of bespoke wills, trusts and other structures, to ensure wealth is passed on appropriately according to a client's particular circumstances.
Specialising in estates and succession planning for 20 years has allowed Paul to develop a deep understanding of a range of solutions that can be implemented to ensure clients’ wishes are fulfilled and as a result he has built a loyal client following.
Examples of how Paul has supported clients include:
- Assisting a farming family to reorganise an existing trust for the purposes of paying the school fees for grandchildren;
- Setting up lifetime trusts to support the sale of a family run business whereby one member of the family was purchasing the shares in that business following the disposal of the shares to the trusts by a separate member of the family. Other family members benefitting from those trusts for the long term. The arrangement was structured tax efficiently;
- Dealing with a substantial multi-jurisdictional intestate estate. This estate involved a minority interest, substantial farmland and a challenging family structure. Working with all necessary third parties Paul was able to administer the estate and distribute assets appropriately; and
- Working with a family over a 10 year period to ensure on the death of the husband and wife (which has now occurred) full use of their inheritance tax allowances was achieved to ensure on the second death only a small amount of tax was paid. This required not only gifts to be made on the first death but also appropriately drafted Wills to ensure on the second death fairness was achieved between the children, some of which were from a previous marriage.