Trusts come in all shapes and sizes, and are established for a number of reasons. You may be considering ways to limit your tax liability. Or contemplating a future following an illness or personal injury proceedings. Or you may be considering ways to preserve your family business or estate for future generations.

Trust planning requires a unique approach for every single client. Whatever your situation, we’ll build the right team for you. That means working closely with our leading personal injury, commercial, disputes, property, agricultural and charity teams. You can rely on us to provide the very best advice across the disciplines and tailor every suggestion to be utterly relevant to your life and future.

Our Tax and Trust Team deals with the establishment and administration of UK private and charitable trusts of all types; we manage over 300 trusts on behalf of clients.

Our trust administrators deal with the preparation of trust accounts and tax returns, and deal with the day-to-day issues relating to trust administration, handling all correspondence with trustees, beneficiaries, investment advisers, land agents and the Inland Revenue. We advise on taxation issues connected with trusts, on their establishment, during their lifetimes and at wind up.

We have a team of lawyers who advise trust corporations and individuals (whether as trustees or as beneficiaries) on legal issues. A trust, when established, can continue in existence for many years, and as it is inevitable that family circumstances will change over a period of time, we monitor the need for alterations to the original structures.

We can advise on the variation of existing trust arrangements for family or taxation reasons, and prepare all necessary legal documentation, including, where necessary, court applications for variations. In such cases, we work closely with our litigation team.

We are also experienced in dealing with disputes that may arise in relation to trusts. Commonly, these occur over the interpretation of trust documents or trustee actions. Our tax team can also assist in handling the Inland Revenue claim for inheritance tax, capital gains tax or income tax relating to all trust types.

We advise on:

• Drafting and setting up of off- and on-shore Trusts
• Use of trusts for family financial provision
• UK trust administration
• Issues arising from the administration and operation of UK trusts
• Trust disputes
• Establishing trusts following personal injury proceedings
• Taxation issues connected with trusts
• Winding up trusts
• Trust corporations
• Trustee liability and regulations
• Variation of existing trust arrangements
• HMRC clams for inheritance, capital gains or income tax, relating to trusts