Simon is a private client lawyer with more than 17 years’ experience in advising on all aspects of estate and succession planning, including wills, deeds of variation, trusts and lasting powers of attorney. Much of his practice involves advising on and implementing strategies designed to both minimise inheritance tax and capital gains tax and afford clients more controlled succession planning and greater wealth protection from other non-tax threats.
Simon has a good deal of experience in advising business owners and clients with agricultural interests on estate and succession planning considerations as well as tax planning for the family home and clients with international connections.
Simon also advises the trustees and beneficiaries of trusts on the nature and extent of their responsibilities and interests and how existing arrangements can be managed or restructured to achieve optimum outcomes.
Simon is a full member of the Society of Trust & Estate Practitioners (STEP) and holds a Diploma in Investment Advice from the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI).
Expertise
- Estate and succession planning
- Inheritance tax
- Capital gains tax
- Wills and deeds of variation
- Trusts
- Lasting powers of attorney
- Wealth protection
Experience
- Advising on and implementing a variety of estate planning arrangements designed to minimise capital taxes and deliver greater asset protection, including wills, deeds of variation and trusts.
- Advising on mental capacity issues, including the preparation and registration of lasting powers of attorney.
- Advised a construction entrepreneur on a pre-business sale planning strategy designed to maximise available tax reliefs and wealth protection.
- Acted for a family with significant equine interests on their complex estate and succession planning arrangements.
- Advised on the variation of an estate to capture the residence nil rate band allowance and shelter additional growth from inheritance tax.
- Advised on and prepared the trust documentation as part of a wider family investment company structure.
- Advised on a wealth and succession planning strategy for the CEO of a major global brand including wills, trusts, a family investment company and a private unit trust.
- Implemented a trust strategy for a technology entrepreneur with significant annual dividend receipts designed to deliver substantial inheritance tax savings and wealth protection benefits.
- Advised on and prepared the trust documentation establishing an education and maintenance trust for a client’s young child.
- Advised on and implemented the winding up of a trust containing property assets.
- Acted for a landowner on the transfer of land to her children, structuring it in a way to mitigate both inheritance tax and capital gains tax.
- Acted for a client on the transfer of his home to the next generation, successfully delivering substantial inheritance tax savings.
- Advised a wealthy non-UK-domiciled individual coming to the UK on issues such as the residency test, remittance rules, trust planning and options for structuring a residential property purchase.
- Advised on the preparation of Jersey wills for a wealthy couple seeking to take advantage of the UK/Indian Double Tax Treaty.
Please note: The experience list above may include examples of work completed prior to joining Keystone Law.
Career
Simon qualified as a solicitor in 2004. Prior to joining Keystone Law in 2022, he worked at the following firms:
- Irwin Mitchell
- Cazenove Capital Management
- Lloyds Bank Private Banking
- Speechly Bircham