Monday
Ocorian appointed Ken Wrigley as head of private client in Guernsey. Having been promoted from the role of finance director, Mr Wrigley has an accounting and multidisciplinary background and has been a member of Ocorian’s team for 20 years. Prior to that, he was a manager at offshore bank Butterfield Group.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak published a summary and explanation of his tax affairs from 2022 to 2023, Will Sidery reports. This is the second year running that the Prime Minister has published his tax affairs after promising he would during his failed leadership bid in 2022. The personal tax summary for 2022/23 was compiled by wealth management and professional services firm Evelyn Partners and showed that Mr Sunak made over £2.3 million in the period and paid over £500,000 in tax.
Tuesday
Simon Goldring joined Ogier as private client director – Middle East and will be based in Dubai. Working with clients across the Middle East, he will be an ambassador for Ogier's global jurisdictions – BVI, Cayman, Guernsey, Ireland, Jersey, Luxembourg. Mr Goldring will help develop client relationships as part of the extended Ogier team, working with Ogier's clients and intermediaries including family offices, regional and international onshore law firms and financial institutions. He has more than 20 years' experience supporting families in the region as an international lawyer and extensive knowledge of the needs of private clients around the world, most recently working at Excello Law in Liverpool Street. Before this, he was a partner at McDermott Will & Emery.
Law firm Thomson Snell & Passmore appointed Claire Busuttil as a partner to its Court of Protection team. Ms Busuttil joined from Mayo Wynne Baxter, where she trained and has spent the last 19 years. She has experience in advising on Court of Protection applications including deputyship, statutory wills and lifetime gifting applications for individuals who do not have the capacity to manage their own financial and property affairs and make independent decisions.
Wednesday
JTC promoted Mark Fleming to the position of head of private client services in Jersey. Mr Fleming takes over the role from Paul Weir, who has moved to a new strategic position within JTC’s group risk and compliance team. Having joined JTC in 2020, Mr Fleming was previously deputy head of private client services in Jersey. He began his career as a Chartered accountant with one of the ‘big four’, at KPMG, and has also spent over a decade working for a bank-owned trust company, at RBC Wealth Management.
Professional advisory firm Moore Kingston Smith appointed Alex Horton as a partner in its media team. Mr Horton has over 12 years’ experience in guiding individuals and owner-managed businesses in the entertainment industry. He advises clients across film, TV and theatre regarding technical tax issues such as creative industry tax relief claims and a variety of HMRC tax inquiries.
Thursday
Meet Derek Mills, ambassador for Justice & Care, a charity that combats slavery and sex trafficking, and author of leading personal development book, ‘The 10 Second Philosophy®.’ The son of Jamaican immigrants, Mr Mills was born in Birmingham and currently lives in Worcestershire, where he runs a thriving HNWI-focused managing partner practice at St James’s Place. Despite struggling terribly with a stutter as a teenager following his mother’s death, Mr Mills has spoken and delivered his keynote speech on four continents and works with several FTSE100 companies, business owners, entrepreneurs, and global organisations. He shared his experiences and thoughts with eprivateclient.
Suntera Global appointed Samantha Godwin as client services director in Jersey. In her new role, Ms Godwin will lead a team focussed on supporting private wealth clients with their multijurisdictional structuring needs. Ms Godwin previously worked for a number of global service providers, such as Praxis and Stonehage Fleming, where she supported private clients with their asset protection and wealth management needs. With close to 30 years’ experience in the finance industry, she specialises within the fund administration, corporate, real estate and private wealth sectors.
Friday
The headlines surrounding sustainable investing have not been favourable in recent months. ESG sceptics have used this to claim the ‘heyday’ is over and sustainability has lost its charm in the wealth management sector. According to Morningstar, global sustainable funds experienced net outflows of $2.5 billion in the last quarter of 2023. However, recent activity from wealth managers, particularly in the UK, would suggest the industry is not expecting ESG interest to fade away. Rather, it could be argued efforts are actually ramping up in anticipation of greater demand for sustainable solutions. [Read more from Katie Royals]
The recent decision in Sim v Pimlott and others [2023] caught the attention of the private wealth industry. The case saw a widow (Mrs Sim) seeking to deploy the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 to claim that her late husband’s (Dr Sim) will failed to make reasonable financial provision for her. Mrs Sim's claimed the provision was inadequate on the basis of the length of their marriage and the abuse she had allegedly suffered during that time. In assessing the claim, the court considered: whether the financial provision set out within the will for Mrs Sim was reasonable; whether it was reasonable to include the no-contest clause; and whether a claimant can subsequently argue a will has failed to make reasonable financial provision because of an effective no-contest clause. [Read more]