Expertise
Ann is a partner in the Private Client team and an acknowledged expert in the field of financial abuse of older people. The second edition of Ann’s book on the subject has just been published. Her practice also covers a wide range of trust, probate and private wealth management work for both large, complex estates and settlements. She advises trustees on tax and estate management issues and provides advice on UK and foreign succession issues.
She also regularly advises on Property and Affairs and Personal Welfare Lasting Powers of Attorney, the registration of Enduring Powers of Attorney, applications to the Office of Public Guardian and Court of Protection including tax planning and statutory will applications.
Ann holds appointments for clients as attorney, and executor and trustee. She has also been appointed as Deputy by the Court of Protection and as an Independent Executor and Administrator by the Courts.
Recent Experience
- Acting for a vulnerable adult in a wide ranging financial abuse case involving multi-dimensional advice for property, divorce, insolvency, and corporate issues.
- Advising clients with international properties and mental capacity issues involving co-ordination and liaison with foreign lawyers.
- Applications to the Court of Protection to remove deputy and recover assets for client.
Career History
Ann joined Wedlake Bell LLP from Cumberland Ellis when the firms merged in April 2012.
Ann is a member of the Society of Trusts and Estates Practitioners (STEP), the STEP special interest group on Mental Capacity and Association of Lifetime Lawyers.
Publications
Ann has written and published her own book ‘Powers of Attorney for Finance & Property: A User’s Guide‘.
Bloomsbury Professional published the second edition of Ann’s book ‘Financial Abuse of Older Clients: Law, Practice and Prevention’ in 2020.
Sweet & Maxwell published Ann’s first work, the authoritative ‘Personal Chattels – Law, Practice and Tax’ which gives an account of the law surrounding the ownership, transfer, and taxation of personal chattels and how the law could be amended.
She has also contributed to the Law Society’s 6th Edition of the Elderly Client Handbook and is a contributor to Lexis Nexis’s publication Finance and Law for the Older Client.
Ann contributes to webinars on mental capacity and financial abuse issues both within the profession and elsewhere.
She regularly contributes to legal journals on the whole range of private client issues including STEP Journal, Wealth Briefing, Private Client Advisor, and the Solicitors Journal as well as the national media.