Allen & Overy

A specialist area for A&O 

Our Private Wealth specialists work with a variety of ultra high-net-worth individuals, including entrepreneurs and those in the financial sector.  We provide advice on the creation and administration of trusts and other structures, focusing on tax efficiency, succession and the safeguarding of the clients' assets.  We also advice on philanthropy, which has an increasing importance for wealthy clients.

The team does not just focus on private wealth, however.  Working closely with other departments across the firm, we also regularly use our trusts and partnerships expertise to advise companies, private banks, charities, chartered bodies and partnerships, or the counterparties who are dealing with them, in a variety of commercial transactions.

Trainees can expect a diverse caseload - drafting a discretionary trust, arranging a client's immigration for business purposes, researching tax law, advising on the loan of a painting to a gallery, converting a partnership into an LLP and setting up a charity are just a few examples of the typical matters trainees are likely to assist with.

One recent example of our work involved reviewing the way in which a family's significant wealth is held and creating a suitable structure to hold their worldwide assets.  Due to the international nature of the different assets involved, we have had to work closely with external lawyers in the Caribbean, along with colleagues in our New York and several European offices who assisted us in devising a pan-European real estate holding mechanism for the family's various homes.  We frequently undertake planning of this kind, developing structures to hold investments, yachts, planes, art, properties and other assets.  For many of these families, confidentiality is of utmost importance and we work carefully to ensure that this is maintained going forward.

We also recently advised on the merger of two international firms of patent agents.  The transaction involved lengthy and complex negotiations of the financial and practical implications of the high profile merger.  Interaction with colleagues in other departments across the firm and around the world was required as employment law, pensions, real estate and corporate law issues arose during the course of crafting the documentation.

Voted by industry peers as 'London Legal Team of the Year' at the highly regarded Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) Private Client Awards in 2007, we have been shortlisted for two further awards at this year's ceremony.  We are also consistently ranked No.1 in 'International Private Client' by Chambers Global.

You can find more information about the Private Wealth & Charities  practice area on the main Allen & Overy website.