Private Client and Charities

In a nutshell
You have money. You need to know how best to control it, preserve it and pass it on: enter the private client
lawyer. Solicitors advise individuals, families and trusts on wealth management. Some offer additional
matrimonial and small-scale commercial assistance, others focus exclusively on highly specialised tax and
trusts issues, or operate predominantly in wills and probate.
Charity lawyers advise on all aspects of the activities of non-profit organisations, including the defence of
legacies bequeathed to a charity in a will. These specialists need exactly the same skills and knowledge as
private client lawyers, but must also have the same kind of commercial knowledge as corporate lawyers.

What lawyers do

Private client lawyers

 Draft wills in consultation with clients and facilitate their implementation after death. Probate
involves the appointment of an executor and the settling of an estate. Organising a house clearance
or even a funeral is not outside the scope of a lawyer's duties.
 Advise clients on the most tax-efficient and appropriate structure for holding money and assets.
Lawyers must ensure their clients understand the foreign law implications of trusts held in offshore
jurisdictions.
 Advise overseas clients interested in investing in the UK and banks whose overseas clients have UK
interests.
 Assist clients with the very specific licensing, sales arrangements and tax planning issues related to
ownership of heritage chattels (individual items or collections of cultural value or significance).
 Bring or defend litigation in relation to disputed legacies.
Charities lawyers
 Advise charities on registration, reorganisation, regulatory compliance and the implications of new
legislation.
 Offer specialist trusts and investment advice.
 Advise on quasi-corporate and mainstream commercial matters, negotiate and draft contracts for
sponsorship and the development of trading subsidiaries, manage property issues and handle IP
concerns.
Realities of the job
 An interest in other people’s affairs is going to help. A capacity for empathy coupled with
impartiality and absolute discretion are the hallmarks of a good private client lawyer. You’ll need to
be able to relate to and earn the trust of your many varied clients.
 Despite not being as chaotic as other fields, the technical demands of private client work can be
exacting and an academic streak goes a long way.
 A great deal of private client work is tax-based, particularly involving income and estate tax.
Specialists in this area also need their corporate tax knowledge to be up to scratch as it's not unusual
for the families they work for to have multimillion-dollar businesses to their names.
 The stereotype of the typical ‘country gent’ client is far from accurate: lottery wins, personal injury
payouts, property portfolios, massive City salaries and successful businesses all feed the demand for
legal advice.
 If you are wavering between private clients and commercial clients, charities law might offer a good
balance. Charities range from small voluntary organisations to large, global behemoths.
 Your charity clients may have more worthy goals than those of your friends working for big
business, but they'll need advice on many of the same issues: from how to incorporate, to supply
contracts, to the duties of management and trustees.
  Charities law still conjures up images of sleepy local fund-raising efforts or, alternatively, working
on a trendy project for wealthy benefactors. The wide middle ground can incorporate working with
a local authority, assisting a local library or school to establish an after-school homework
programme, or rewriting the constitution of a 300-year-old church school to admit female pupils.
Widespread international trust in English charity law means that you could also establish a study
programme in Britain for a US university or negotiate the formation of a zebra conservation charity
in Tanzania.
Current issues
 Since the UK voted to leave the EU there has been much speculation about the impact on the private
client and charity sector. It's likely that income and inheritance tax rates will eventually be increased
and certain tax relief payments may be restricted.
 The changing legislative landscape is likely to have a fairly significant impact on non-profit
companies receiving EU funds, working with European organisations, or undertaking projects in
Europe. Furthermore, tax relief for cross-border donations between EU countries might no longer be
available for UK-based non-profits.
 Overseas clients are increasingly investing their assets into the UK, often into property, and law
firms are continuing to deal with large numbers of foreign clients, many of whom come from the
Middle East and Eastern Europe. The topic has recently sparked controversy with campaigners
lobbying for more stringent rules on shady foreign ownership of property and other assets.
 In the wake of the Panama Papers data leak in early 2016, (which revealed how the world's wealthy
hide their assets in offshore tax havens), public and media pressure has forced the government to
take steps towards cracking down on money laundering and tax evasion: where a tax planning
scheme is in dispute, HMRC can now demand payment of the full disputed sum up front and under
new plans being considered by ministers, foreign companies buying UK property could be made to
disclose the identity of their owners. The Finance Bill 2016 is expected to introduce legislation
ensuring any profits arising from UK land ownership, development and transactions are fully taxed.
 Despite the scandal surrounding the Panama Papers, financial arrangements relating to offshore
financial centres remain important, and a group of small and specialist law firms deal with much of
the related legal work. You can find them ranked in the 'Offshore' category in Chambers UK.
 The UK's ageing population is creating a growing amount of wills and probate work for private
client practices. With more people preparing their own wills there has been a rise in clients seeking
legal advice rather than products. This has created further work for lawyers handling contentious
trusts and probate, as incorrectly prepared wills are increasingly being challenged.
 In 2015 the Treasury announced significant changes to inheritance tax rules, raising the value of
assets which qualify for tax free transfers. Individuals will eventually be able to pass on assets worth
up to £500,000 without paying tax on them, with this figuring rising to £1 million for married
couples and civil partners.
 The government is planning to increase the overall probate fees charged on property left to relatives.
Estates worth less than £50,000 will no longer be subject to a fee, while charges for estates worth
more than £2 million will be increased to £20,000, as part of the proposed tier system.
 Charities are increasingly coming under pressure to comply with anti-money laundering and
terrorist financing regulations, but organisations are concerned that increased regulation is making it
difficult to contribute money to war-torn areas.
 As part of a wider push towards transparency in the charity sector, the Charities Act 2016 gives new
powers to the Charity Commission, to strengthen and increase regulation of the sector. The act also
broadens the scope of criminal offences which could lead to an individual's disqualification from
trustee status.
 Government cutbacks in recent years have left charities under pressure to deliver services with
increasingly limited funding, resulting in a number of charity mergers, like the highly publicised
union between Age Concern and Help the Aged to form Age UK.
 The rise of social enterprises (commercial organisations with social or charitable, rather than simply
monetary, objectives) has blurred the lines between commercial and charities law. A range of legal
structures exists for these enterprises to make use of, including charitable trusts, co-operatives and
Community Interest Companies (profit-making enterprises that must reinvest their income for the
benefit of social objectives).