Biography
Sarah is an SRA Regulated Senior Associate in the Trusts and Estates Team. Sarah qualified in 2008.
Sarah advises her clients on lifetime estate and tax planning, trust administration including collapsing trusts and taxable estate administration. Sarah works closely with business owners, including farmers, and high net worth individuals for both life time planning and post death work, ensuring they maximise all reliefs available to them.
Sarah takes a holistic approach to her work with her clients to ensure that she identifies all their needs, including whether other specialist professional advice is required, such as financial advice. Consequently, Sarah is truly looked upon as a specialist trusted advisor by her clients.
Although having obtained a law degree after leaving school, Sarah first qualified as a financial planner before going back to law to qualify as a Legal Executive and then a Solicitor. Sarah initially specialised in all aspects of residential property law before moving to private client.
Sarah is a Trust and Estate Practitioner (TEP) having obtained her Society of Trust and Estate Practitioner (STEP) diploma with a distinction.
Sarah is a Dementia Friends Champion providing Dementia Friends sessions to people interested in becoming a Dementia Friend.
Relevant experience
- Private client: Advising a couple with children from previous relationships with interests in a number of limited liability companies. This included preparing Wills with flexible life interest trusts and separate discretionary trusts with detailed letters of wishes to ensure no inheritance tax (IHT) is payable on first death but assets are protected for their respective children. Also working closing with the Corporate Team to put appropriate shareholder agreements in place.
- Private client: Assisting trustees with remedying a partially constituted trust. The resulting work included:
- advising on mitigating the upcoming anniversary tax charge by appointing assets out of the trust together with claiming holdover relief on the same; and
- appointing a revocable life interest of the trust fund and mandating income to avoid a significant income tax charge from historic income arising.
- Private client: Advising on an estate administration which included issues of gifts of reservation of benefit and pre-owned asset tax.
- Private client: Preparing a deed of variation to a large farming estate to take advantage of the available agricultural property relief and ensuring this was preserved going forward.
- Private client: Advising clients on estate administration which included overseas assets. Working with solicitors in the relevant jurisdiction to ensure all available tax allowances were claimed and both estates can be progressed as swiftly as possible.
