A look at the most read stories on eprivateclient this week...
Monday
Ocorian, the specialist global provider of services to financial institutions, asset managers, corporates and high net worth individuals, promoted 178 people across the group. These promotions stretch across all the group’s service lines, including private clients and regulatory and compliance. In the private client division, Andrea Bateman and Annie Norledge have been promoted to senior manager and Lee Smith has been promoted to manager, whilst Craig Brolly, Keisha Burchall, Renu Chummun and Fran Stubbing all received assistant manager promotions. In the firm's regulatory and compliance division, Nimish Shah has been appointed as head of regulated services and Kim Higgens has been promoted to assistant manager.
Irwin Mitchell promoted 12 people to partner roles across the firm as part of its latest annual process. The promotions include five complex personal injury solicitors, two from Court of Protection, three private client lawyers and two family lawyers. Spread across Irwin Mitchell’s office network, five of the promoted are based in London, two in Birmingham and Manchester, and one each in Gatwick, Leeds and Newcastle. The newly promoted partners are: Marie Kilgallen and Phillip Rhodes in family; Rose MacFarlane and Kat Wainman in private client; Mandeep Khroud in immigration; Victoria Ward and Lucy Bazley in Court of Protection; Iain Shoolbred in workplace illness; Alexandra Winch and Tom Gough in medical negligence; and Sofie Toft and Laura McIlduff in serious injury.
Tuesday
JTC appointed Sean Walsh to the role of head of private client services in Guernsey. In his new role, Mr Walsh will lead JTC’s Guernsey-based team of private client specialists, who administer a range of structures for multijurisdictional high net worth clients. Mr Walsh joined JTC as a director in 2022 and has worked in the fiduciary services sector for over 20 years. He has experience in supporting high and ultra-high net worth families and institutions with the administration of multi-jurisdictional structures. He specialises in working with UK, European and Middle Eastern families.
Charles Russell Speechlys created a new advanced client solutions team, made up of a total of 10 newly created full-time job roles all of which are UK-based. There will be 18 full-time roles by the end of 2024 which the firm has already begun hiring for. The advanced client solutions department will contain various capabilities to help streamline the delivery of legal work within the firm, incorporating solution development, legal tech and AI, legal project management, alternative delivery and process improvement.
Wednesday
Investor services group IQ-EQ appointed Sridhar Nagarajan as managing director, Singapore and regional chief executive of Asia, Middle East and Africa. The role will also see Mr Nagarajan join the IQ-EQ group management team (GMT). Mr Nagarajan has over 30 years of industry experience and has been a part of IQ-EQ’s senior leadership team since 2019 where he has been serving as Africa, India and Middle-East (AIME) regional managing director. Prior to joining IQ-EQ, Mr Nagarajan worked for international bank MauBank, leading a merger and turnaround of two state-owned banks in 2015, resulting in the creation of a new financial institution.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced plans to scrap Spain's golden visa programme, according to reports from Spanish paper El País. Speaking in Seville, Mr Sánchez said: "We are going to start the procedure to eliminate the granting of the so-called golden visa, which allows access to the residence regime when more than half a million euros are invested in real estate. We are going to take the necessary measures to ensure that housing is a right and not a mere speculative business," he added.
Thursday
Millionaires projected video and image messages demanding a wealth tax onto IMF and World Bank buildings ahead of G20 Finance Ministers' Meeting. As G20 Finance Ministers’ meet during the World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings, activist group Patriotic Millionaires has asked world leaders to "tax us, the super-rich, or face further catastrophic consequences to our democracies and our planet". This is the second time G20 Finance Ministers have met since Brazil took on the presidency of the G20 this year. Their first meeting, in February 2024, saw both the Brazilian and French Finance Ministers publicly support an initiative to set international standards on how to tax the ultra-wealthy.
HMRC published further guidance on the impact of the abolition of the lifetime pension allowance (LTA) in its latest newsletter on pension schemes. Some of the changes relate to the charges applying when individuals transfer their pension savings to a qualifying recognised overseas pension scheme after 6 April 2024. A transitional tax-free amount certificate (TTFAC) may be revoked where it is found to be incorrect. If a relevant benefit crystallisation event (RBCE) has occurred before the revocation of the certificate, the March 2024 lifetime allowance guidance newsletter confirmed that previous RBCEs will be recalculated based on the actual transitional tax-free amounts and the individual may be liable to pay further tax.
Friday
London law firm Farrer & Co made four promotions to partner effective from 1 May 2024. The four new partners are William Charrington (dispute resolution), Charmaine Pollock (employment), Laetitia Ransley (charity & community) and 2023 eprivateclient NextGen Leader Nicola Pomfret (private client). The promotions will bring the total number of partners at the firm to 101. The firm has also promoted Graham Anderson (dispute resolution), Blue Elliott (dispute resolution), Hoi-Yee Roper (dispute resolution), and Carole Howe (private client) to senior counsel.
Companies House launched a new procedure to remove an overseas entity's registration from the UK's Register of Overseas Entities. If an overseas entity is not, or is no longer, a registered owner (proprietor) of relevant property or land in the UK, it can apply to be removed from the Register of Overseas Entities. Property or land in the UK that was bought on or after the following dates will be eligible: 1 January 1999 in England and Wales; 8 December 2014 in Scotland; or 5 September 2022 in Northern Ireland. Removal means the entity will not be able to buy, sell, transfer, lease or charge its property or land in the UK, unless it re-registers.
There is now only one week left for readers to help nominate the 2024 eprivateclient Crown Dependencies NextGen Leaders. The 2024 eprivateclient Crown Dependencies NextGen Leaders is open to nominees from within the private client advisory professions be they private client tax, trust, dispute resolution and family lawyers, accountants or trustees. To make a nomination, please click here