A look at the most read stories on eprivateclient this week...
Tuesday
UK law firm Kingsley Napley promoted four to partner with effect from 1 May 2024, including private client lawyer Jemma Garside and private wealth dispute lawyer Katherine Pymont. This brings the total number of partners at the firm to 87, of whom 43 (49 percent) are female. Ms Garside specialises in Court of Protection matters and her practice involves supporting professional and lay deputies for individuals who lack the capacity to manage their own property and financial affairs. [Read more]
JTC’s Geneva office moved to a new address in the Pont-Rouge district and is now located at Alto Pont-Rouge, Esplanade de Pont-Rouge 9, 1212 Grand-Lancy. The move coincides with the granting of JTC’s professional trust licenses by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA). FINMA has approved licenses for both JTC (Suisse) SA and JTC Trustees (Suisse) SARL under the Financial Institutions Act (FinlA: SR 954.1).
Wednesday
The first 38 crypto investors came forward to admit to underpaying tax on their cryptoassets since HMRC opened its cryptoasset disclosure facility in November 2023, UK accountancy group UHY Hacker Young has uncovered. These individuals have disclosed a total of £428,717 in unpaid tax on income from cryptoassets or an average of £11,282 per disclosure. HMRC’s new online disclosure service allows individuals to tell the tax authority about unpaid tax on income or gains from cryptoassets, such as exchange tokens like Bitcoin, Ethereum and Tether, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and utility tokens.
Professional advisory firm Moore Kingston Smith promoted Joseph Adunse from its private client tax services team to partner. Mr Adunse is one of five to be promoted to partner along with two other director promotions. As a partner in the tax team, he advises private clients on the UK tax areas affecting them. Working with individuals, business owners, multigenerational families and trustees, he assists them in navigating matters arising in various scenarios such as relocating to the UK, planning a move abroad, succession, and managing assets and business interests both locally and overseas.
Thursday
Law firm Stephenson Harwood partnered with Harvey AI to launch a generative AI (GenAI) strategy, focusing on three key workstreams. Harvey AI tailors GenAI solutions for legal tasks. The firm also started working with an unnamed partner to build custom GenAI technology solutions and is selectively identifying existing technology products to enhance the delivery of services to clients.
The new managing partner of North of England law firm Ward Hadaway said he plans to achieve 100 percent growth within the next ten years. Steven Petrie has laid out his ambitions after being appointed as the new managing partner at Ward Hadaway, a firm with offices in Leeds, Manchester and Newcastle. On 1 April 2024 Mr Petrie took over from Martin Hulls, who stepped down as planned at the end of his second three-year term. Joining the insolvency team in 2012, Mr Petrie has had several different roles including head of the commercial dispute resolution (CDR) department.
Friday
Continued "anaemic UK GDP trend growth" at about one percent coupled with inflation coming back to target, means that the winner of the next general election will have to raise taxes to maintain the existing provision of public services, according to research from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research. The analysis claimed that there is 'essentially' no fiscal headroom for any further tax cuts, given that the government’s current spending plans do not meet their 'self-imposed' fiscal rules. Not only are these rules not being met, the thinktank said, but they may also inadvertently prevent good fiscal decision-making by constraining the public investment needed to improve economic growth and ensure the United Kingdom meets its net zero target by 2050.
76 companies delisted from the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) in the past 12 months – a sharp increase of 62 percent from 47 delistings in the previous 12 months, research by UK accountancy group UHY Hacker Young revealed. The reasons cited by those companies included the high cost and time required to comply with AIM obligations (seven companies), the low share price they have achieved on AIM (two companies), and financial stress or insolvency (12 companies). The last time that delistings were this high was during the pandemic. In 2019/20, 67 companies left AIM.