Private Client at Scots Law 2022

The legal profession has been resilient in the face of unprecedented challenges over the past two years.

To ensure that you can continue to provide your clients with the solutions they require, our latest Scots Law series, Practical Advice Beyond Disruption, looks at the crucial next phase in eight key practice areas.

As client needs become ever more sophisticated, the modern private client practitioner must draw from an ever deeper well of knowledge.  Our new online Private Client Conference focuses on where your advice can make a real difference, whether through the innovative use of trusts in succession planning, carefully navigating your clients through the minefield of legal rights or ensuring that complex tax issues are effectively dealt with.  The needs of elder clients and those with business assets will also be considered, along with where genealogy investigations can help in intestacy issues.

Practical and client-focused, questions to be considered will include:

• what are the succession planning options available to your clients through the use of trusts?
• why might a trust be judicially varied and what are the procedures for effecting such a variation?
• what are the warning signs of financial elder abuse and how can your advice help your clients?
• how do you navigate the legal rights minefield?
• what are the tax traps you need to avoid when administering estates?
• how can genealogy help to resolve an executry?
• where do business accounts and Inheritance Tax reliefs interact?
• what are the most common issues and areas HMRC investigate when claims for BPR/APR are submitted?

Join us and our panel of experts to discuss these important questions and consider the impact on your advice and your practice.

What's being covered?

Succession planning with trusts

In this session the succession planning options clients may wish to consider will be discussed, with a particular focus on the use of trusts, both those established in a client’s lifetime and those only established after death in a client’s will.  The tax and practical implications of such trusts and their advantages/disadvantages will be looked at in detail.  For anyone advising clients regarding wills and succession planning it is important to have some knowledge of private trusts and this session will provide that.

Andrew Paterson, Murray Beith Murray

The variation of trusts: why and how?

David will consider why a trust might need to be judicially varied (as well as when an alternative might be available) and the procedures one might expect to encounter when doing so. He will review what the court will usually expect to see in an application for the variation of a trust from both the private client and court practitioner perspectives. 

David Welsh, Axiom Advocates

Financial elder abuse

Financial abuse of the elderly continues to be of growing concern, but what are the warning signs, what issues can commonly arise and how can our advice help to protect our clients?

Alison Hempsey, TC Young

Legal rights – navigating the minefield

Contentious executries seem to be the rise, with legal rights disputes at the forefront, meaning it’s more important than ever to be aware of the hidden traps. This session will highlight some of the key issues around what is moveable property, whether gifting has been effective, what tax traps may exist and whether collation applies.

Sarah-Jane Macdonald, Gillespie Macandrew

Avoiding tax traps when administering estates

Executry practitioners are under ever more pressure to wind up estates as quickly as possible. However, this can lead to errors and omissions which may result in complaints from executors and/or beneficiaries. This talk will consider just some of the inheritance tax, capital gains tax and income tax traps the executry practitioner should look out for in order to minimise any tax liability and to avoid potential problems and financial penalties being imposed by HMRC.

Jamie Marwick, Anderson Strathern

Genealogy helping to resolve an executry – a case study

In this session, we will examine a case study from several technical perspectives, including: how a genealogist helped establish the rightful heirs to an intestate estate; particular areas where an amateur genealogist went wrong; risk management; and insurance support.

Simon Barber, Title Research

BPR & APR – the Importance of financial accounts

Business Property Relief (BPR) and Agricultural Property Relief (APR) are extremely valuable IHT reliefs providing relief up to 100%. It is crucial that all advisors realise the importance of how financial accounts, be it sole traders, partnership or Limited Companies can impact the ability to claim these reliefs and the main areas of concern. We will review various sets of financial accounts to highlight the most common issues and areas HMRC investigate when claims for BPR/APR are submitted. We will also review the current case law and guidance on trading versus investment status and how this can impact claims for BPR.

Scott Greig, EQ Chartered Accountants

Interaction between business accounts and Inheritance Tax reliefs

• trading and non-trading
• what is a business and what is investment?
• difficulties with Partnership Agreements
• issues with Memorandums of Association and rights to buy etc
• Inheritance Tax BPR/APR round up

John McArthur, Gillespie Macandrew

This event is sponsored by Title Research