A Manchester-based law firm has said it is moving to safeguard the long-term interests of clients following the launch of their own trust corporation.
Private Client Solicitor (PCS) was founded by Tasnim Khalid in 2005 and has become well-respected amongst the high net worth community. Khalid described the setting up of the trust corporation as a further sign of the firm’s maturity, adding
“Quite often, firms appointed as executor to someone’s estate or to act on a family trust have their involvement in someone’s succession planning undermined by changes within their own business. Trust corporations are not dependent on the contribution of a single legal practitioner and, therefore, are able to offer continuous service even if an individual lawyer handling a particular client’s affairs is ill, changes jobs, retires or dies.
“In that sense, they provide great reassurance to clients wanting to ensure a consistency of guidance over a number of years in addition to those events, such as bereavement or the loss of capacity, when speed and familiarity can be of the essence.”
As one of a handful of trust corporations in the north west, PCS follow in the footsteps of Yorkshire-based Walker Foster who set up their own trust corporation earlier this year. Together with fellow PCS partners, Nicola Walker and Paul Gotch, the firm’s founder and Managing Partner, Tasnim Khalid, has become one of the corporation’s three directors.
“Establishing a trust corporation is not necessarily a swift process, not least because it means applicants having to demonstrate how robust they are as businesses. Our trust corporation is led by directors who are all senior lawyers as well as being qualified with the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) and featuring in the UK’s top legal rankings. I have no doubt that the new arrangement, founded on that vast collective experience, will be a great comfort to clients, especially those needing a professional executor, attorney, deputy or trustee.”
With widespread misunderstanding of upcoming tax changes by the Labour government, it is anticipated demand for trusts and more complex estate planning services will increase. The latest figures published by the Trust Registration Service (TRS) show that some 733,000 trusts and estates worth more than £3.1 billion had been registered by March last year.
PCS have been recognised as one of the 250 best law firms in England and Wales compiled by The Times newspaper, with trust corporation directors Khalid, Walker and Gotch all recognised by Chambers and Partners this year.
Khalid was highlighted as “a sector expert”, who is “extremely knowledgeable”, Walker was described as “a superb practitioner…highly technical, personable and efficient”; and Gotch was identified as being “an excellent lawyer”, able to explain “complex concepts in easy-to-understand ways”.
In April this year, Khalid was appointed to the board of the Charity Commission by Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy.
