Asset Protection Solicitors

Estate and succession planning involves arranging how your personal and business assets will be managed and passed on during your lifetime and after your death.

Effective planning considers inheritance tax, capital gains tax, and other potential tax liabilities to help preserve your wealth for future generations.

By taking advice early, you can structure your affairs in a way that supports your wishes while remaining compliant with current legislation.

Yes. While asset protection measures can provide valuable safeguards, they cannot be used to unfairly deprive a spouse or other party of assets they may be legally entitled to. The courts have wide-ranging powers in divorce and financial remedy proceedings and will consider the circumstances of each case. Taking legal advice before entering into agreements or transferring assets can help ensure your arrangements are both effective and legally robust. 

Trusts can be an effective way to protect assets while allowing you to determine how and when beneficiaries receive them. Depending on the type of trust established, you may be able to safeguard assets from future risks, provide for vulnerable beneficiaries, or preserve family wealth across generations. Choosing the right trust structure is essential, as each has different legal, tax, and administrative implications. 

Some of the most common mistakes include delaying planning until it is too late, failing to review wills and trusts after significant life events, overlooking tax implications, and assuming that transferring assets automatically protects them from future claims. Another common issue is failing to consider business interests, property ownership, or family dynamics as part of a wider succession plan. Seeking specialist legal advice early can help you avoid costly mistakes and create a strategy tailored to your family's circumstances. 

Trusts can be an effective way to protect assets while ensuring they are managed in line with your wishes.

Depending on the type of trust used, you may be able to retain a degree of control over how assets are managed, when beneficiaries receive them, and the purposes for which they can be used.

Trusts can also help preserve family wealth, provide for vulnerable beneficiaries, support succession planning, and, in some circumstances, offer tax planning benefits.

Choosing the right trust structure is essential, as each type of trust has different legal, tax, and administrative implications. Seeking specialist legal advice will help ensure your trust is tailored to your objectives and complies with current legislation.

Mr A is widowed with two adult children from that marriage and approached us as he is due to remarry. Mr A’s children are married with children of their own. Mr A’s son is in a trading business with Mr A. Mr A also has some property businesses which are in both limited companies and partnerships. Some are with his son, and some with his siblings.

Mr A wanted to ensure that if the new marriage breaks down, his assets are protected for his children, as his wealth was built up with his deceased wife. He especially wants to protect the trading business, which is his son's livelihood. Mr A also wants to prevent any claims being made against his estate by his new wife should he die first, but if they are still together, he wants to provide her with somewhere to live and an income for her to live off.

Once the trading business has been dealt with, Mr A wants to equalise his estate between his son and daughter to ensure fairness. The assets in Mr A’s estate total around £12 million and therefore inheritance tax is also a consideration.

Our Private Wealth team collaborated across the disciplines to ensure that the client received cohesive legal advice on both his personal and business assets for the purposes of succession whilst planning for “worst case scenario”. Mr A valued the importance of forward planning to avoid family disputes at a later stage along with associated costs which easily escalate in litigation.

We reviewed and drafted a prenuptial agreement following full disclosure of the financial position of both parties to ensure that a fair agreement was reached if the parties were to divorce. Financial provision was provided to the new wife to meet her reasonable housing and income needs. The wife was legally represented separately to ensure that she understood the impact of the prenuptial agreement upon her.

With regards to succession planning on Mr A’s death, we prepared new Wills in contemplation of marriage to complement the prenuptial agreement. Trusts were used both within the Will and during lifetime to reduce the estate for inheritance tax purposes as well as asset protection.

We also reviewed the structures of the businesses and associated documentation (partnership agreement, shareholders agreement, cross options and articles of association) to ascertain what would happen in relation to the succession of each of those businesses on various life events happening. We updated the constitutional documents incorporating provisions dealing with for example, the transfer shares, valuation and the compulsory transfer of shares by certain shareholders to Mr A’s children in the event of divorce and other change of circumstances. Provisions in the constitution dealing with the transmission of shares on death were also updated to

ensure that there was no conflict with the terms of Mr A’s Will. For example, where business interests were to be gifted under the terms of Mr A’s Will, the relevant constitution of the business concerned was updated to permit this arrangement.

Separately, Mr A also obtained tax advice about estate planning. As a result, Mr A established a family investment company to mitigate inheritance tax and pass wealth down to the younger generations of his family. Mr A, together with family members from different generations, were all shareholders of the new company. The rights on the shares were such that Mr A retained voting control over the company during his lifetime. We advised Mr A on the rights attached to the shares to be held by different family members, the constitution for the new company and we also dealt with the issue of shares to the various family members. The initial funding to the new company was provided by Mr A and the shares were issued as a gift to other family members.