Most business owners have thought about who gets the shares if something happens to them. Far fewer have thought about what happens on the Monday morning after. Who can pay the wages? Who can sign the cheques? Can the business even trade while probate is sorted out?...
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TLDR: Book Review — Never Split the Difference, for Business Owners and Families
Never Split the Difference, by former FBI hostage negotiator Chris Voss, is not a book about tax or estate planning — but it is unusually useful for business owners facing three specific conversations: negotiating a business sale, resolving a shareholder dispute, and...
Book Review: Never Split the Difference — What a Hostage Negotiator Can Teach You About Selling Up, Falling Out, and Talking Money With Family
Every so often a book lands on our desk that has nothing to do with wills, trusts or inheritance tax, and yet ends up shaping half our client conversations that month. Chris Voss's Never Split the Difference is one of them. Voss spent over two decades as an FBI...
TLDR: The Always-On Phone: Why Being Permanently Reachable Is Costing You More Than You Think
Business owners and landlords who stay reachable around the clock often believe this makes them more responsible. In practice, constant interruption steadily wears down the focused thinking that good decisions depend on, while poor sleep and unbroken background stress...
The Always-On Phone: Why Being Permanently Reachable Is Costing You More Than You Think
I have spent thirty years sitting with families after someone has died, helping them make sense of what was left behind. Time and again, the people I meet are not just grieving a parent or a partner. They are grieving someone who never quite switched off. A business...
TLDR: Employee Ownership Trusts: A Third Way to Sell Your Business
An Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) is a third succession route alongside a trade sale or passing the business to family. You sell your shares to a trust that holds a controlling stake for employees generally, usually paid in instalments rather than a lump sum. Where...
Employee Ownership Trusts: A Third Way to Sell Your Business
Most business owners planning their exit think in terms of two roads: sell to a trade buyer, or hand the business down to the next generation. There is a third option that has quietly become one of the most tax-efficient ways to step back from a company you have...
TLDR: Deprivation of Assets and Care Fees
Councils can treat a gift or property transfer as "deprivation of assets" if they decide it was done deliberately to avoid care fees. There is no fixed time limit: a council must show you knew you would need care at the time, and that avoiding fees was a significant...
Deprivation of Assets: When a Council Can Unwind Gifts and Property Transfers Made to Avoid Care Fees
Every few months, a client sits across the desk from me and asks some version of the same question: "If I give the house to my children now, will the council still count it when I need care?" It is a fair question. Care home fees can run into tens of thousands of...
Free Estate Planning Guide
Learning how to protect your assets can feel like an overwhelming topic. Our FREE Estate Planning Guide will help you to understand the process and how to get started.