A look back at the most popular stories on eprivateclient this week...
Tuesday
London based law firm Howard Kennedy hired two partners for its private wealth team. It appointed Katherine Res Pritchard as a partner in the firm's family practice and John Kiely as a partner in its immigration practice. Ms Res Pritchard joined Howard Kennedy from Vardags, a divorce and family law firm, where, most recently, she held the position of senior director. Meanwhile, Mr Kiely has over 10 years’ experience advising on a broad range of immigration matters.
'Divorce Day' is the most popular day of the year for couples to make the decision that they want to end their marriage and law firms and divorce services companies see a spike in enquiries. 2023 will see the first Divorce Day since the introduction of no-fault divorce legislation in England and Wales in April 2022.
Wednesday
Law firm Michelmores hired former eprivateclient Top 35 Under 35 Dhana Sabanathan as a partner. Ms Sabanathan is an experienced tax and estate planning adviser having worked with high net worth and ultra-high net worth individuals, family offices, entrepreneurs, corporates and owner-managed businesses.
Middle earners will be facing a £20,000 stealth tax hike over the next decade, new research commissioned by the Liberal Democrats revealed. The House of Commons Library analysis showed that someone on a salary of £60,000 will pay an extra £20,440 in income tax over the next ten years due to Jeremy Hunt’s freezing of income tax thresholds – equivalent to nearly four months of work going unpaid.
Thursday
Wealth management and professional services group Evelyn Partners appointed Jonathan Balcombe as a partner in its business tax team. In this role, Mr Balcombe will focus on tax advice for private equity-backed companies and their stakeholders. He joined Evelyn Partners from EY where he worked for more than 18 years and was most recently a partner providing advice and support to private equity-backed and fast-growth companies.
Trust and fiduciary services provider Alex Picot Trust hired Chelsea Ford as trust manager. She joined from Jersey-based independent trust, corporate and fund administration provider VG after three years, where she was most recently promoted to assistant trust manager in July 2022.
Friday
International law firm Withers bolstered its services for clients in Texas through the arrival of the Dossey & Jones team, based in the Houston area. Dossey & Jones has been representing high net worth clients in the Houston area since 1972 and partner Jim Dossey is the third generation of his family to work at the firm.
The median FTSE 100 chief executive’s earnings for 2023 surpassed the median annual salary for a full-time worker in the UK by around 2pm on Thursday 5 January, after having worked around 30 hours, according to calculations by the High Pay Centre. The calculations were based on the most recent chief executive pay disclosures published in companies’ annual reports combined with government statistics showing pay levels across the UK economy.