Meet the team

Private Client

Irwin Mitchell

Reading, England
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Deals

Advised professional and lay family trustees of complex and interwoven family trusts on the momentous termination of the trusts by sale and appointment of the co-owned commercial assets of the trusts, involving complex tax and legal advice and including the preparation of more than 30 separate and multifaceted deeds of appointment.

Advised business owners in the lead up to the sale of their successful business on the options available to them to ensure protection of proceeds the sale for the longterm benefit of their family, including advice on business property relief and the use of multiple trusts to reasonably limit the family’s tax exposure over time

Advised national lottery winners on estate planning including wills, lasting powers of attorney, gifting, and trusts following a win.

Organigram

Team Services

The team all advise and assist private clients in their wealth and estate planning, providing advice on inheritance tax, Wills, Trusts, Probate, and Lasting Powers of Attorney. Each team member also has their own particular area of specialism:

Sarah Phillips (Partner) leads the Reading team and has a long established client and referrer base in the home counties and London, predominantly advising business owners and C-suite executives and their families with estate values form £5m to £30m+.  She works closely with financial planners and accountants and advises on all legal and tax aspects of estate planning.

Sarah’s specialism is inter-generational wealth planning and helping families to structure their estates for themselves and to provide for the younger generations, protecting the wealth from the risks of tax, relationship breakdowns, later life care costs, incapacity and beneficiaries who are young, vulnerable or financially immature.

Sarah is chair of the Thames Valley branch of STEP and is also a director of the firm’s trust corporation, acting as a professional executor, trustee and attorney.

Stewart Stretton-Hill (Senior Associate) specialises in helping wealthy individuals and their families with the legal, tax and practical issues faced by those preparing for or experiencing diminished mental and physical capacity.  As well as providing advice to Attorneys and Deputies on their duties and responsibilities Stewart also advises on applications to the Court of Protection to appoint Deputies, remove trustees who have lost their mental capacity and enable Deputies and Attorneys to undertake tax-planning.

Stewart is an Irwin Mitchell national lead for Later Life, chairs the firm’s Elderly and Vulnerable Client technical committee and provides training to financial advisors and investment managers on the duties imposed by the FCA and the skills required acting for vulnerable clients.

Stewart is often approached by and quoted in the press, speaks at Charity events focussing on supporting families with disabled adult children and is a non-exec member of the Thames Valley branch of STEP.

Sarah Paton (Senior Associate) works with clients from the national Wills, Trusts & Estates Disputes Teams and Family Teams to provide tax, trust and structuring advice.

Sarah specialises in helping individuals and their families with the legal and tax aspects of managing, protecting and passing on personal wealth.   She advises on complex wills and trusts (both the setting up and the ongoing administration) as well as wider tax planning (IHT, CGT and IT). The majority of her clients are business owners, senior execs and HNW families with estates £5m – £30m.

Alistair Robertson-Gopffarth (Senior Associate) specialises in advising clients on matters with an international element such as property held overseas, helping overseas clients with their onshore assets and tax-planning. He is a notary public and qualified Chartered Tax Advisor, and member of Association of Tax Technicians, as well as a solicitor.

Alistair is fluent in Dutch and German and as well as his domestic tax and succession planning he advises on cross-border estate planning and administration.

Following his initial career in the Royal Navy Alistair has a particular interest in helping clients with a military background and he works closely with both our international team and our military team.

Testimonials

Awards and Recognition

Northern Law Awards

Team of the Year - Private Client

STEP

Platinum Accreditation

STEP 2020/21 Private Client Awards

Private Client Legal Team of the Year (large firm) (Winner)