Wealth planning solicitors for high-net-worth clients

Osbornes Law’s wealth planning solicitors advise high-net-worth individuals, families and business owners. Our private client team is ranked in Chambers High Net Worth and the Legal 500.

Once your wealth includes a business, several properties, assets abroad or a family that spans more than one marriage, a standard will and a couple of gifts won’t be enough. The decisions interact. A change to how you hold your company shares affects your will, your trusts and your family’s tax bill.

We’re lawyers, not financial advisers. We don’t give investment advice or sell financial products. We put the legal structures in place and work closely with your adviser, accountant or wealth manager so that the legal and financial plans fit together.

If you’re looking for general advice on reducing inheritance tax, making gifts or protecting the family home, our estate planning and inheritance tax solicitors cover that in detail.

Who we help

Our wealth planning clients usually fall into one or more of these groups:

• Business owners who want to pass on a company, or its value, without leaving the family with a large tax bill or a boardroom dispute.
• Families with substantial property or investment portfolios, often worth well over £2 million.
• People with assets, homes or family in more than one country.
• Second marriages and blended families, where you want to provide for your spouse and protect your children’s inheritance.
• People who have come into significant wealth quickly, through a business sale, an inheritance or a windfall.
• Families who want to bring the next generation into the plan, including grandchildren.

How wealth planning is different at this level

Larger estates face rules that most people never meet. Three examples show why the planning has to be joined up.

You can lose the residence nil-rate band. The residence nil-rate band (an extra £175,000 allowance when your home goes to your children or grandchildren) is reduced by £1 for every £2 your estate is worth over £2 million. A single person with an estate above £2.35 million loses it completely. Planning can sometimes keep an estate below that line.

Business and agricultural relief now have a limit. Since 6 April 2026, 100% relief applies only to the first £2.5 million of qualifying business and agricultural property. Relief on anything above that is 50%. Unused allowance can pass to a surviving spouse or civil partner, so a couple can pass on up to £5 million of qualifying property with full relief.

Pensions are coming into inheritance tax. For deaths on or after 6 April 2027, most unused pension funds and death benefits will count as part of your estate. For many wealthy families, the pension was the one asset they had planned to leave untouched. It now needs to be part of the plan.

Business succession planning

If you own a company, your succession plan needs to answer three questions. Who will own it? Who will run it? And how will the tax be paid?

We work with your accountant and corporate lawyers to:

• Review whether your shares qualify for business relief, and how the £2.5 million allowance applies to you and your spouse.
• Draft wills that leave business assets in the most tax-efficient way, often into a trust so relief can be secured.
• Put shareholder and cross-option agreements in place so the business can buy out your family if you die.
• Plan for incapacity with a business lasting power of attorney, so someone can sign contracts and run the accounts if you can’t.
• Plan lifetime gifts of shares to children, where this makes sense for the business and the family.

Business relief isn’t available if a business mainly deals in shares, land or buildings, or in making or holding investments. Many property letting companies fall into this group. HMRC checks these claims closely, so we look at how your company actually operates before relying on the relief.

Property companies and business relief: Beresford v HMRC

In July 2026 the Upper Tribunal decided Executors of Beresford v HMRC [2026] UKUT 00285 (TCC). Mr Beresford’s company owned a six-floor office building in High Holborn. Two floors were let to tenants. The other four were run as serviced offices by a management company, with a receptionist, cleaning, office equipment, heating and air conditioning included.

The executors argued that the serviced offices were a business that qualified for relief. The tribunal disagreed. It found that what clients mainly paid for was the right to use an office in the building. Some services, such as heating and air conditioning, went beyond managing an investment, but they were not enough to change the character of the business. The company was mainly an investment business, so there was no business relief on the shares.

If your company earns most of its income from property, including serviced offices or other managed space, don’t assume business relief will apply. The tribunal looks at the business as a whole and asks what customers are really paying for. We can review your company with your accountant and plan on the basis that relief may not be available.

Trusts for family wealth

Trusts let you pass on wealth while keeping control over who benefits and when. For larger estates they are often the centre of the plan.

We set up and advise on:

• Discretionary trusts, which let trustees decide who benefits and when. These suit families with young children, grandchildren or beneficiaries whose circumstances may change.
• Life interest trusts, which give your spouse an income or a home for life and then pass the capital to your children.
• Trusts for vulnerable beneficiaries, which provide for a family member with a disability without affecting means-tested benefits.
• Trusts in your will that receive business or agricultural property, so relief can be used and the assets protected.

Trusts have their own tax rules. Putting assets worth more than the nil-rate band into most trusts during your lifetime can trigger an immediate 20% inheritance tax charge on the excess. Further charges can apply every 10 years and when assets leave the trust. We explain the costs before you commit, and we advise trustees on their duties and HMRC reporting afterwards. Read more about our trust services.

International estates and long-term UK residence

If you have homes, investments or family abroad, your estate may be dealt with under the laws of more than one country.

From 6 April 2025, whether your worldwide assets are subject to UK inheritance tax depends on long-term UK residence rather than domicile. You are a long-term UK resident if you’ve been UK tax resident for 10 of the previous 20 tax years. If you leave the UK, that status can continue for between 3 and 10 years, depending on how long you lived here.

We draft UK wills that sit alongside wills in other countries, advise on which country’s rules apply and work with lawyers abroad. Our international estate planning solicitors can advise on your particular countries.

Second marriages and blended families

Wealthier families often have more at stake when a second marriage is involved. You may want your spouse to be secure for life while making sure your children from an earlier relationship inherit in the end.

A life interest trust in your will is often the answer, but not always. We look at how your homes and investments are owned, what your spouse will need, and whether lifetime planning or a nuptial agreement would help. Our family law solicitors can advise on prenuptial and postnuptial agreements alongside your wealth plan.

Careful drafting also reduces the risk of a dispute after your death. Many of the private wealth disputes we see start with a plan that left one side of the family feeling overlooked.

Passing wealth to the next generation

Many clients want to pass on wealth during their lifetime, while they can see it used well. How you do it matters.

• Regular gifts from surplus income are exempt from inheritance tax straight away, as long as they come from income and don’t reduce your standard of living. Good records are essential.
• Larger gifts fall outside your estate if you live for seven years. We make sure you keep enough to live on.
• Family investment companies can let you pass on growth in value while keeping control. They are complex and suit some families better than others, so we look at them with your accountant.
• Charitable giving, through a will, a charitable trust or lifetime donations, can reduce tax and create a lasting legacy.

We also help families talk about the plan. Explaining your wishes to your children now is one of the best ways to avoid disputes later.

How we work with your financial adviser and accountant

The best results come when your solicitor, financial adviser and accountant work together.

Your financial adviser looks after investments, pensions and insurance, and is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Your accountant advises on income tax, capital gains tax and company tax. We create and maintain the legal structures: wills, trusts, lasting powers of attorney, shareholder arrangements and deeds.

In practice, that means:

• Your adviser reviews your pension in light of the 2027 changes, and we update your will and trusts to match.
• Your accountant restructures your company ahead of a sale, and we advise on the inheritance tax effect and your succession plan.
• You sell an investment property, and we advise on whether the proceeds should be held in trust.

We’ll join meetings with your other advisers, in person or by video, and speak to them directly with your permission. If you don’t have an adviser or accountant, we can introduce you to professionals we’ve worked with.

Our wealth planning process

1. Initial consultation. We meet you, in person or by video, to understand your assets, your family and what you want to achieve. The consultation is charged at the hourly rate of the solicitor you see, and we confirm any further fees at this stage.
2. Review. We review your existing wills, trusts, lasting powers of attorney and company documents, and how each asset is owned.
3. Recommendations. We set out a plan and discuss it with you and, if you wish, your other advisers.
4. Drafting. Once you approve the plan, we prepare the documents: wills, trusts, lasting powers of attorney, deeds of variation, declarations of trust or shareholder arrangements.
5. Putting it in place. We oversee signing, register lasting powers of attorney and help transfer assets into any trusts.
6. Regular reviews. We recommend a review every three to five years, and sooner after a business sale, a marriage or divorce, a move abroad or a change in the law.

Most wealth plans are in place within four to eight weeks. International estates and complex trust arrangements can take longer.

Why choose Osbornes Law for wealth planning?

Our private client team is ranked in Chambers High Net Worth and the Legal 500. Several of our solicitors are members of STEP, the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners.

You’ll work directly with an experienced solicitor, not a trainee. We’ve advised individuals and families for over 40 years, with particular experience of second marriages, international estates and high-value estates.

We’re based in London and act for clients across the UK. Most of our work can be done remotely.

Speak to a wealth planning solicitor today

If you have significant assets, a business or an international estate, speak to our wealth planning lawyers about protecting them. Call us on 020 7485 8811 or fill in the contact form below to arrange an initial consultation.