Your life.
Your Clarke Willmott

Keeping wealth in the family is understandably a priority for you. However, juggling financial, property and business assets, as well as tax liabilities, and achieving the right outcome for all concerned is rarely straightforward.

This is where we come in. Our team of specialist wealth planning and tax solicitors are on hand to advise you on:

• Using Wills, trusts and alternatives to trusts for complex inheritance planning and tax mitigation
• Factoring in international and cross border considerations
• Transferring control of a family business or ownership of property
• Protecting against insolvency
• Setting up a pre or postnuptial agreement
• Pre-empting potential disputes or negative behaviours

Deciding how best to pass on your wealth can be complex and emotional. We understand, and can help you create an appropriate and effective strategy to help you carry out your wishes, meet your responsibilities and protect your assets.

Our team of specialist wealth and tax planning solicitors are on hand to advise you on:

• Using Wills, trusts and alternatives to trusts for complex inheritance planning and tax mitigation
• Factoring in international and cross border considerations
• Handing over control of your business
• Transferring property ownership
• Lifetime giving including philanthropy

Juggling family, finances, property and business assets as well as your tax liabilities is complicated enough. Add overseas interests and different jurisdictions to the mix and achieving the right result becomes even more challenging.

This is where we come in. Our team of private wealth solicitors are on hand to advise you on:

• Using Wills, trusts and alternatives to trusts for complex inheritance planning and tax mitigation
• Lasting Powers of Attorney, Wills and advance decisions involving foreign interests
• Business succession planning involving overseas interests
• Structuring and planning UK tax
• Buying and selling UK property
• Buying and selling a UK business
• Setting up an international pre or postnuptial agreement

Planning for the future through your Will and legacies is a delicate balancing act between your personal wishes, your family responsibilities and your tax obligations.

We have all the technical expertise and wise counsel you need to achieve this balance. Our team is ready to advise you on:

• Using Wills and trusts for complex inheritance planning, asset protection and tax mitigation
• UK tax planning
• Factoring in international and cross border considerations
• Protecting your children’s inheritance
• Handing over control of your business
• Lifetime giving including philanthropy
• Making advance decisions in case you lose capacity to do so in the future
• Appointing executors and setting up a Lasting Power of Attorney

Structuring your finances, selling assets and finding a home can be more stressful and take longer than you expected – especially if you have lived overseas for a long time or are moving here for the first time.

Our team of wealth and tax planning specialists can help you plan every step of your move or return to the UK and advise you on:

• Your residence status for tax purposes
• Renting or buying a property in the UK
• UK tax structuring and the use of trusts
• Cross-border estate and succession planning
• Buying or setting up a business in the UK
• Protecting your international interests including pre and postnuptial agreements

We know it’s hard to even contemplate that things might not work out with your partner.

However, taking steps early on to agree how best to protect what matters to you, especially your children, means you’re prepared in case your relationship does ever break down.

Our team of specialist family solicitors is on hand to advise you on:

• Protecting the financial interests of children
• Protecting pre-marital assets
• Protecting business interests
• Agreeing terms with your partner if you’re not married or in a civil partnership
• Agreeing co-parenting responsibilities
• Making or changing your Will

Starting or growing your family by an alternative route is an exciting prospect, but it can also be challenging. Our alternative parenting and family solicitors are experienced in guiding you through the complexities you may face.

We can help shape your plans, support you throughout and ensure your family gets off to the right start, advising you on:

• The complexities of fertility law
• Conceiving with a known or unknown donor
• Putting a pre-conception agreement in place
• Using a surrogate including international arrangements
• Adopting a child in the UK or overseas
• Adopting stepchildren
• Becoming a foster parent
• Storing eggs, sperms or gametes
• Establishing legal parenthood and parental responsibility
• Agreeing co-parenting terms

If you’ve separated from your partner, one of the hardest things is the impact on your children. Arrangements must be made that work for both parents and put the children’s best interests first. Understandably, this can be an emotional and trying process.

We have the expertise and sensitivity to reach the right outcome and can advise you on:

• Using alternative dispute resolution (ADR) such as mediation and collaborative law to negotiate a workable solution
• Reaching financial settlement in a divorce
• Custody and contact arrangements
• Child maintenance
• Co-parenting agreements
• Grandparents’ rights
• Cross border considerations

Appointing someone you trust to act for you if you are incapacitated in the future ensures you and your loved ones can be taken care of in the way you want.

Your representative has to make crucial decisions on your behalf, so it’s essential to choose carefully. Our private wealth team is ready to advise you on appointing:

• Guardians for your children
• Executors of your Will
• Trustees
• A Court of Protection deputy to manage the affairs of an elderly or mentally incapacitated individual
• Setting up a Lasting Power of Attorney (or LPA) to enable someone you trust to act on your behalf
• Powers of attorney for foreign assets
• A professional attorney

Administering someone’s estate can be a timely reminder to get your own affairs in order, to make things easier for the people who’ll be in your position in the future.

We can tailor a unique plan to ensure your estate is distributed according to your wishes while considering the challenging and ever-evolving international legal and tax implications.

Our private wealth specialists are on hand to advise you on:

• Using Wills and trusts for complex inheritance planning, asset protection and tax mitigation
• Appointing executors
• UK tax planning
• Factoring in international and cross border considerations
• Protecting your children’s inheritance
• Handing over control of your business
• Charitable giving

If you have a disabled child or are caring for a vulnerable adult or elderly relative, we can help you make the right decisions to safeguard and protect their interests at all times.

Our dedicated team is on hand to give expert, efficient and sensitive support and advice on:

• Looking after a vulnerable or mentally incapacitated person’s financial affairs or welfare needs
• Financial planning, investments and inheritance tax
• Acting as a Court of Protection deputy
• Appointing a professional deputy
• Administration and duties
• International assets and cross border considerations

If you’re planning to buy or invest in UK property the process may be more complicated than you might expect. There are many factors to consider from ownership options to the tax implications.

This is a field where expert advice can make all the difference – and that’s where we come in. Our Residential Property Conveyancing solicitors are on hand to advise you on:

• Buying and selling a residential property, including property investments and buy to let
• Buying and selling property in the UK as an overseas investor including Chinese legal services
• Buying and selling rural property and landed estates
• Tax structuring and trusts
• Joint ownership arrangements
• Transfer of ownership
• Re-financing and re-mortgaging

It may be hard to imagine now, but one day you will leave your business – perhaps to retire, start a new venture, cash in or for health reasons. We can help you plan a smooth exit, protect your wealth and hand over the business to a new owner or family member.

Our corporate and private wealth solicitors are on hand to advise you on:

• Business succession planning
• Exit strategies
• Preparing your business for sale
• Tax and estate planning
• Wills, trusts and alternatives to trusts
• International assets and cross border considerations
• Shareholder agreements
• Setting up pre and postnuptial agreements
• Pre-empting potential disputes or negative behaviours

When you run your own business, particularly if it’s a family concern, your personal and business lives inevitably become entwined. This makes it even more important to ensure you have plans in place to protect your family, your wealth and the future of your business.

Our multidisciplinary team is standing by to advise you on:

• Creating a business succession plan
• Setting up a family business agreement
• Setting up specialist Wills and tax structures
• Establishing or reorganising the structure of your business
• Creating a pre and postnuptial agreement
• HR and employment law
• Making or changing your Will
• Creating a Lasting Power of Attorney

Diversifying a farm or rural business often requires legal expertise on many different areas of law at different stages. As well as commercial matters, there are also a variety of personal implications to consider.

We can help you to realise your vision and advise you on:

• Real estate and planning
• Tax, estate and succession planning
• Corporate and commercial law
• Intellectual property, data protection and Ts & Cs
• Contracts and employment law
• Funding
• Health and safety
• Family business agreements

Planning for the future through your Will and legacies is a delicate balancing act between your personal wishes, your family responsibilities and your tax obligations.

We have all the technical expertise and wise counsel you need to achieve this balance. Our team is ready to advise you on:

• Using Wills and trusts for complex inheritance planning, asset protection and tax mitigation
• UK tax planning
• Factoring in international and cross border considerations
• Protecting your children’s inheritance
• Handing over control of your business
• Lifetime giving including philanthropy
• Making Advance Decisions in case you lose capacity to do so in the future
• Appointing executors and setting up a Lasting Power of Attorney

If you’re entering into any kind of mutual arrangement with someone, it makes sense to agree terms up front. This gives you both clarity and helps to avoid disagreements in the future.

This is where we come in. Our team of private wealth solicitors can advise you on establishing a:

• Pre or postnuptial agreement with your spouse
• Cohabitation agreement particularly if you have children
• Co-parenting agreement or sperm donor agreement
• Shareholders agreement
• Family business agreement

If you’re embroiled in a dispute, you need to focus on the matter in hand in order to reach a resolution that works for all concerned. However, when it’s over, you may want to take steps to reduce the chances of other disputes in the future.

Our private wealth solicitors can advise you on establishing a:

• Pre or postnuptial agreement with your spouse
• Cohabitation agreement particularly if you have children
• Co-parenting agreement or sperm donor agreement
• Shareholder agreement
• Family business agreement

If you’re seeking compensation, you’ve not got the headspace for planning advice right now. But if your claim is successful you could find yourself awarded a significant amount of money that might need to last for the rest of your life.

Our specialist lawyers and advisors can advise you on the most effective ways to structure your finances and plan for the future. We can help you with:

• Financial management if you lack the mental capacity to look after your money
• Appointing a professional deputy or trustee experienced in managing larger sums of money for people with more complex needs
• UK tax, estate sand succession planning
• Making or changing a Will
• Setting up pre and postnuptial agreements