Changes to trusts have been an area of particular focus for Mary Hase in the past year,
with many client beneficiaries wanting to change, break, or end their trusts early.
‘One of the most interesting things was a large overseas estate where the trustee executors didn’t appreciate the difference between acting as executor and acting as trustee,’ says Hase, who is now private client director at Buzzacott. ‘That’s a concept we have in the UK which they don’t have abroad, and we were able to advise so that they saved quite a lot of tax.’
Hase says clients are more concerned now about whether their money is going to last or whether it will be lost to taxation – but at the same time ‘there’s much more acceptance of the need to pay one’s fair share of tax’. However, that doesn’t mean the latest round of complex legislation hasn’t been extremely annoying, she adds.
‘For corporations, tax rates seem to be going down – but personal taxes keep changing, as does the free dividend allowance,’ she notes. ‘When it comes to inheritance tax, I’m advising clients to think of themselves before their children. It’s their money, security and happiness… keep it, use it and spend it.’
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Hase offers her clients ‘candidness, fairness and impartiality,’ although she also advises that you can’t magic tax liabilities away.
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