Solicitors Specialising in Wealth Protection, Planning and Management
Providing wealth management advice to private clients requires a strong grasp and detailed knowledge of the law and tax regulations both in the UK and international jurisdictions. And our highly specialist wealth management lawyers often work in close collaboration with your accountant and other financial advisers to provide tailored strategies for individuals, family businesses, wealth management advisors, family investment companies, and family trusts.
Our wealth management team help individuals and families navigate the complex legal landscape of managing and preserving wealth, ensuring that their financial goals are met and that their assets are passed on in accordance with their wishes.
Having helped high-net-worth individuals and families over many years, while the circumstances of each case will be different, our aim is always the same: to create a tailored strategy to manage your wealth so that it is maximised and protected during your lifetime and for the benefit of your family.
At Bonallack & Bishop, we have the wealth management expertise to provide legal advice to ensure that your wealth is carefully managed through a combination of inheritance tax (IHT) planning, trusts, Wills, and other associated measures.
For a FREE initial wealth planning and Inheritance tax saving and consultation, just call our Lawyers on FREEPHONE 0800 1404544 or one of our local office numbers [see below] for a no strings attached initial chat.
What do wealth management lawyers do?
Our wealth management experts provide legal advice and services to individuals, families, and businesses regarding financial planning, investment, and estate management.
The main focus of their work is on helping clients protect, grow, and transfer their assets. This includes reducing inheritance tax liabilities and protecting hard-earned wealth for the benefit of families and future generations. Wealth management lawyers can advise on a wide range of strategies, including:
· Business succession planning
· Care home fee planning – click here to read more about Care Home Fee Planning
· Dispute resolution
· Estate planning
· Family Investment Companies (FICs)
· Gifting
· High net worth divorce
· IHT planning
· Pensions
· Prenuptial and Postnuptial agreements – Click here to read more about Prenuptial Agreements
· Probate
· Trusts
· Wealth planning
· Wills
Whether you are in the UK or overseas, we have the expertise and resources to recommend and take action on a bespoke plan to look after your financial interests.
Why choose our wealth management lawyers?
Not all wealth management services are equal. At Bonallack & Bishop Solicitors, we have the expertise and experience to create a bespoke strategy to manage and protect your wealth based on your unique circumstances. This may include advice on strategic gifting, the range of trusts available, Wills, the use of corporate or partnership structures, and family business succession.
At Bonallack & Bishop, Consultant Solicitor Elizabeth Webbe, who works in our Private Client Department, is a Full Member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP). STEP is the 
leading global professional organisation of lawyers and accountants with specific expertise in the area of tax and wealth management. Elizabeth also has experience dealing with assets and clients based outside of the UK and works to ensure that her tax solutions do not adversely impact any home territory tax planning.
We also have an in-house tax accountant who works directly with our legal team and has the expertise to provide tailored IHT advice.
Estate Planning – at the core of family wealth management
Estate planning is about ensuring that your assets and wealth are protected for the benefit of your loved ones.
Estate planning is not a single discipline; rather, it involves a range of services, including Wills, trusts, IHT planning, care home fee planning, overseas estate planning, and wealth management.
We will help you arrange and manage your assets and affairs during your lifetime and make decisions on how you want them to be distributed upon your death. Our goal is always to ensure that your wishes are carried out and that as much of your estate is protected for your beneficiaries in the interests of their financial well-being as possible.
What is a Trust?
A Trust is a separate legal structure into which money and assets can be safely placed and held. This structure is managed by Trustees, who follow the instructions of the Settlor (the person who set up the Trust) for the benefit of specific individuals, called Beneficiaries.
Trusts can be relatively simple or complex – and they have numerous uses.
We will first assess your situation to determine if a Trust is the most suitable option for your needs. A wide range of trust structures are available (e.g. bare trusts, educational trusts and multi-generational trusts) to protect your wealth during your lifetime and for your loved ones. Depending on your circumstances and wishes, we will advise on which trust or trusts will best meet your needs.
We will then set up your Trust, including the creation of your Trust document and ensuring it is legally valid. We will also provide guidance on the tax implications and benefits of establishing a Trust, both initially and throughout its existence. We will inform you of any implications and explore alternative options that may better align with your intentions.
Click here to read more about how our Trusts Solicitors can help you.
How are Trusts used for wealth management and protection?
By placing your property and assets into a Trust, you effectively relinquish legal ownership of them.
If set up correctly, your property and assets will be safeguarded from creditors and from being included in financial settlements during a divorce. That said, it is important to remember that the Courts have the power to reclaim assets from a Trust if it can be argued that they were placed in the Trust with the intention of preventing them from being part of a financial settlement. This is why it is so important to ensure that you have the correct form of Trust and that it is drawn up correctly and in a legally watertight way.
Placing your assets in a Trust will also give you a way to pass your wealth to future generations while allowing you to maintain control over how assets are managed and distributed, both during your lifetime and after your death.
I think I may need help with trust administration
And if you’re looking for help with actually running the trust, we can do that too.
Our professional trustee service will ensure that your Trust is administered carefully and in full compliance with the law. Trustees have many duties and responsibilities, and often, it makes sense to instruct a professional trustee with the expertise needed to manage trusts. At Bonallack & Bishop, we have an extensive track record in managing a variety of trust structures. We will work closely with a range of other professionals, including accountants, and investment advisers and finance houses, to manage your Trust.
Click here to read about how our Professional Trustee Solicitors Service could help you and your family.
Probate and proactive wealth management
Probate involves applying for the legal right to deal with your estate (i.e. property, money and assets) when you die. We can handle this process, ensuring that your loved ones receive their full inheritance according to your wishes as efficiently and early as possible.
In particular, it’s worth noting that it may be possible to rearrange the estate of the deceased, even after death and having left a valid will, in a more tax efficient way – using what’s known as a Deed of Variation. Our team can advise you on that.
Click here to read more about Probate and Estate Administration
The increasing importance of inheritance tax (IHT) planning for wealth management
Wealth management lawyers can recommend a wide variety of strategies that are designed to minimise your tax obligations (and in particular inheritance tax) in accordance with the law.
The reality is that with the current IHT nil rate band of £325,000 frozen until at least April 2028 (it’s been stuck at £325K since 2009/10), more and more people are paying inheritance tax on their estates. As a result, an increasing number of estates are being eroded by the effect of IHT liability, and this reduces the amount of wealth that can be passed down to beneficiaries. Taking pragmatic and early action to reduce your IHT liability when you die will ensure that more of what you have worked hard to create in your lifetime will not be lost to the taxman.
To keep your IHT liability to a minimum, we will help you to maximise your IHT allowances, including the nil rate bands and residence nil rate bands, make the best use of the lifetime gifting and Potentially Exempt Transfer rules, and recommend trusts where suitable.
Strategies including setting up trusts and strategic gifting can significantly reduce the amount of IHT to be paid. By taking action to reduce your IHT liability, you may be able to bring the value of your estate below the threshold, meaning that no IHT is payable at all.
Don’t risk paying unnecessary inheritance tax. Give our team a call today.
Click here to read more about our specialist Inheritance Tax Planning Advice
Wealth Protection advice
As specialists in wealth management and protection, we will ensure that your assets are safe from any potential risks, such as litigation, family disputes, creditors, bankruptcy, threats, or a contested Will.
This may involve the use of legal structures and instruments that shield your assets from creditors. To protect your estate from a contested Will or inheritance claim, we will ensure your Will is robust, valid, and clear regarding your wishes so that it cannot be challenged in the future.
Succession Planning for your family business
Succession planning is about making sure that the transfer of family businesses to the next generation goes smoothly. Having worked for many years to build your business, you will want to know that everything has been done to ensure it will be legally transferred into the ownership of your loved ones according to your wishes.
That’s something that is often at the centre of the advice our Wealth Management Lawyers provide.
Why are Wills essential for wealth protection?
Core to any wealth management and protection strategy is a carefully drafted Will. Having an up-to-date and valid Will means that you can be clear about how your assets (e.g. property, business interests, money, and investments) should be distributed upon your death. This is crucial for providing for your loved ones, including your family members, children from previous relationships, friends, and charitable organisations. A well-drafted Will also reduce the potential for disputes among family members after you die, giving you peace of mind that your family can benefit from your wealth without falling out with each other.
If you have young children, you can specify within your Will how they should be cared for in the event of your death. This may include appointing a guardian in the event that both parents die. You can also specify who will look after your children’s inheritance for them until they have grown up.
A well-drafted will can speed up the probate process, mainly because your intentions will be clear, allowing your executors to carry out your wishes efficiently. This will ensure that your wealth is passed to your beneficiaries without delay, allowing them to benefit from and make use of their inheritance as early as possible.
Make sure that your will is always up-to-date
Having a valid, up-to-date, and clear Will that reflects your intentions for your wealth and estate when you die is essential to its protection.
We can draft a new Will, update your existing Will, or add a codicil (the term for a formal addition to your Will which does not replace the existing Will) as and when necessary to ensure your Will is correct at all times and not open to questions or challenges in the future.
You may also wish to appoint the firm as one of the executors, or the sole executor, of your estate, ensuring that your Will is correctly and efficiently handled upon your death and that the full value of your estate is realised and passed on to your chosen beneficiaries.
And don’t forget – your Will is going to need refreshing from time to time especially if an important life event occurs.
Click here to read more about Writing a will
Alternative Dispute Resolution – the solution if things do go wrong?
And while we’ll do everything we can to prevent it, when it comes to family wealth, conflicts can sometimes arise. Our wealth management lawyers working closely with a highly experienced dispute resolution team, have all the expertise you need to handle any dispute – including through negotiation and mediation.
Alternative dispute resolution methods can be extremely effective at resolving even the most difficult family disputes, often bringing about a resolution much faster and with much less cost than involving the courts. Most importantly, using negotiation and mediation preserves family relationships in the long term, unlike contentious court litigation, which can cause a great deal of distrust and lasting animosity.
FAQs
What do private wealth lawyers do?
Maintaining and managing wealth can be complex. It requires expertise in numerous legal sectors, including trusts, tax, property, family law and compliance. Private wealth lawyers identify areas where families and individuals with extensive assets need advice and assistance.
Areas that our private wealth solicitors deal with include:
• Setting up trusts
• Advice on trusts management
• Putting family investment companies in place
• Tax advice and planning
• Business succession planning
• Estate planning
• Inheritance Tax advice
• Advice on the legal implications of gifting
• Family law advice for high net worth individuals
• Dispute resolution, including contentious probate
Our role to ensure that you have the legal advice you need to protect and maximise your assets while complying with the extensive legislation that exists.
