Hugo Smith

Hugo has more than twenty five years’ experience assisting high net worth families manage and safeguard their wealth, passing it down to future generations in the most tax efficient manner.

His clients are predominantly UK based and include entrepreneurs, city professionals and multi-generational families, often owning private family businesses and landed estates, together with their trustees, family offices and advisors.

Hugo regularly advises on the creation and administration of appropriate structures for managing family wealth, such as trusts, and acts as trustee for many of his clients, focusing on building long term relationships with them.

He has considerable experience advising the owners of heritage assets, including both works of art and landed estates on available tax reliefs. He has advised on offers in lieu of inheritance tax of works of art worth up to £10 million.

Hugo advises on the full range of private client work, including Wills, Lasting Powers of Attorney and administration of trusts and estates.

• Advising on applications to court for a group of family trusts worth more than £50 million to extend the trust period and add more modern provisions.
• Acting as executor of an estate worth more than £40 million, including both business and agricultural assets.
• Advising on offer in lieu of inheritance tax of work of art worth £10 million.
• Advising the personal representatives of the contentious estate of deceased Belgian national domiciled in Monaco owning a UK landed estate through a Bahamian company.
• Advising on the reconstruction of two private family investment vehicles worth £25 million.