Expertise

Matt advises UK and international individuals, families, trustees and beneficiaries of trusts and family offices on UK tax, estate planning and succession issues.  He acts for high net worth individuals and families including business owners and entrepreneurs.

Matt advises on the establishment and use of trusts and other wealth holding structures and also on the succession of family trusts and businesses and governance issues.  Matt also provides UK tax and structuring advice in relation to the ownership of UK property.

Matt also advises on Wills and general trust law and acts as a trustee.

Recent Experience

• Restructuring the ownership of a number of London residential properties from non-UK trust and/or company ownership into personal ownership (‘de-enveloping’).
• Advising Italian domiciled individuals in relation to inheritance tax planning in the context of their London property.
• Providing ‘pre-arrival’ tax planning to non-UK domiciled to a South American individual and establishing a non-UK trust.
• Advising trustees of a non-UK trust and reviewing an existing trust structure in light of recent UK tax changes.
• Creation of a non-UK trust which is resident in the UK on behalf of a family to provide an ongoing endowment to future generations.
• Drafting wills, lasting powers of attorneys and lifetime trusts to mitigate tax or carry out estate or succession planning.

Career History

Matt trained at Bath-based Stone King and upon qualifying as a solicitor in 2005 where he practised as a solicitor in Bath before moving to London with Stone King in 2008 to develop the firm’s private client services.

In 2011 Matt joined BDO in London as a Senior Tax Manager in their Private Client Services department before moving back into the legal world in 2013 to take up a Senior Associate role in the Private Wealth department of Bircham Dyson Bell (BDB).  Matt joined the partnership at BDB in 2016.

Matt is a full-time member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) and Co-Chair of STEP’s Business Families Special Interest Group.

Matt completed the Post Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice and has a degree in Law from Coventry University.

Publications

Matt has co-authored chapters for the International Comparative Legal Guide: Private Client, including a series chartering the reforms to the taxation of UK residential property and has written widely for industry publications and the national press.  Matt also talks at industry conferences both in the UK and internationally.

Endorsements

Matt is listed in Citywealth’s Leaders List 2018 and was awarded silver for Partner of the Year at the Citywealth Future Leader Awards 2016.

Matt was listed in the eprivateclient “Top 35 Under 35” in 2014 and 2015.