A look back at the most read stories on eprivateclient this week...
Monday
Monday saw the publication of eprivateclient's Top Investment Consultants for 2023. This listing follows the The Top Trust Company rankings, the Top Accountancy Firms, Top Family Law Firms, Top Offshore Law Firms and Top Private Client Law Firms, all of which have been exclusively published on eprivateclient over the past six weeks. The consultancies recognised in eprivateclient’s 2023 Top Investment Consultants initiative provide an indispensable service to wealthier private clients. The list is compiled using a combination of in-house research, data submitted directly by firms, and referrals and feedback from our network of private client practitioners.
Whistleblower reports to HMRC increased by almost half (47 percent) in the past year, according to research by international law firm RPC. This represents an increase of over 50,000 from 106,920 in 2021/22 to 157,270 in 2022/23. Adam Craggs, partner and head of the RPC's tax disputes, financial crime and regulatory team cited the Covid-19 support initiatives such as the furlough scheme, which HMRC is responsible for investigating and Eat Out to Help Out. The National Audit Office (NAO) has estimated that over £7.3 billion was lost to fraud taking advantage of the schemes.
Tuesday
International law firm Womble Bond Dickinson expanded its private wealth practice with three new appointments - Harriet Campbell, Nadine Kilvington and Nicole Thomlinson. Ms Campbell joined the firm as a legal director. She was previously a solicitor at Douglas Home & Co and also held various positions at Farrer & Co, including consultant solicitor in the firm’s private client department. Ms Kilvington has joined Womble Bond Dickinson as an associate from Latimer Hinks Solicitors where she was a senior solicitor. Ms Thomlinson has joined the firm as a paralegal, having previously worked with Ms Campbell at Douglas Home & Co as a legal graduate trainee. [Read more]
Raising the inheritance tax (IHT) threshold to £500,000 and removing the Residence Nil Rate Band (RNRB) would cost the UK Treasury £6 billion from 2024/25 to 2027/28, research from wealth manager Quilter revealed. Quilter’s calculations showed this reform would cost the Treasury on average £1.4 billion per year and prevent around 12,500 families paying IHT each year. In the 2020/21 tax year, 27,000 estates paid IHT. Further calculations revealed that if the UK government chose instead to reduce the rate of IHT from 40 percent to 30 percent, it would cost the government £7.7 billion from 2024/25 to 2027/28. The same number of estates would pay IHT, but their bills would be reduced.
Wednesday
Oligarchs have used shell companies in Cyprus to circumvent Western sanctions according to an investigation led by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which previously published the Pandora Papers and the Panama Papers. The ‘Cyprus Confidential’ investigation uncovered 3.6 million documents spanning a timeframe from the mid-1990s to April 2022 and was carried out by the ICIJ and 68 media partners. [Read more]
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) arrested seven individuals and carried out searches across nine sites as part of a criminal investigation into law firm Axiom Ince. Over 80 SFO investigators, accompanied by Metropolitan Police officers, arrived at locations in the South East of England to bring individuals in for questioning and search for potential evidence. Axiom Ince stopped trading last month when approximately £66 million in client money was found to be missing from its accounts and spent. The sole shareholder at the firm, Pragnesh Modhwadia, was suspected of misusing significant amounts of client money when dishonesty was uncovered in July 2023.
Thursday
London law firm Fladgate appointed Simon Goldring as a partner in its dispute resolution practice, alongside a team of three associates. Mr Goldring will join the firm on 2 January 2024. Joining from boutique private wealth firm, Maurice Turnor Gardner, Mr Goldring has over ten years of experience advising on contentious trusts and probate matters, working with settlors, beneficiaries, executors and trustees on a broad range of contentious matters. Mr Goldring will be joined at Fladgate by an experienced and established private wealth disputes team that he worked closely with at his former firm, comprised of senior associate Rosalind Hetherington and associates Emilly Chalk and Jerry Jamieson.
2023 eprivateclient Top Trust Company Zedra is set to acquire LJ Fiduciary and Alvarium Private Office (APO) from AlTi Tiedemann Global, a global wealth and asset manager. Based in the Isle of Man, Geneva and the UK, LJ Fiduciary and APO will be rebranded and merged into the existing Zedra Group. LJ Fiduciary’s and APO’s service offering includes global private client and corporate administration services.
Friday
EY made a series of leadership promotions across its Channel Islands (CI) offices. Max Ellis, Haley Ison and Vanessa Pipe have all progressed to the role of assurance director, with Cristian Anton being promoted to tax director and Margo Blondel taking on the position of marketing and business development director. [Read more]
HMRC data on service performance from July to September 2023 showed it takes 23 minutes on average for a call to be answered. Almost a third (30.3 percent) of callers who wanted to speak to an adviser were unable to throughout this period. HMRC said that over three million calls related to issues that can be actioned online such as password resets and getting access to tax codes. [Read more]