Expertise: Trusts and Estates

Work and clients: Tony has over 25 years experience delivering specialist trust advice, administering estates and day to day administration for wealthy families and offshore entities. This ranges from tax compliance, accounting and 'family office' administration for a range of UK and offshore trusts and charities, to advising on very complex trust and estate planning strategies for UK and non-UK domiciliaries.

In recent years, Tony has developed particular expertise in offshore trusts and companies with UK interests. With rising UK tax rates fuelling demand for planning and ever more complex legislation, this has become an increasingly specialised area.

The route to Shipleys: Trained with accountants Touche Ross (now Deloitte) in their trust department in the late 70s, and after obtaining a law degree, qualified at the Bar in 1984 before joining well known city legal practice Charles Russell. He then had a period as a trust manager with accountants Cooper Lancaster Brewers and then joined Shipleys in December 2000 becoming a principal in 2011.

Memberships: Barrister at Law (non practising)

Aim:

To provide practical and understandable solutions to a range of wealth and estate planning problems.

Most entertaining deal or case:

Trusts and estates is very much a people oriented area of practice exposing you to the foibles and oddities of human nature. Some years back, a client who was a wealthy international businessman instructed me to establish trust funds for his two mistresses, neither of whom knew of the other, and needless to say entirely unknown to his wife! Unfortunately the client passed away before transfers into trust had been completed and the Trustees had to go 'cap in hand' to the estate's executors (who included the widow) to make good on the intended gifts!

Proudest professional moments:

Being told by a beneficiary that our fee for my report was the best value money he'd ever spent. I thought the advice from the lawyers and administrators, who were both big, perhaps somewhat faceless firms, was technically flawed and that the beneficiaries' interests were not being properly looked after. I felt vindicated when the Trustees sacked them both!

What I like about my job:

The exposure to diverse, interesting and often highly challenging client predicaments.

Interests outside work:

Tony has a particular interest in ethnographic antiques and collectables and when time permits can be found trawling the antique fairs and auction houses for suitable finds.