Catherine Pugsley

Catherine is a partner in our private client team and has a wide practice advising international and UK based private clients, family offices and trustees, on matters including succession and estate planning, trust law, UK personal taxation, philanthropy and charity issues.

Having worked in Europe for many years Catherine has direct experience in advising on the practicalities of cross-border estate planning and probate between the civil and common law jurisdictions. She has also advised on the cross-border repatriation of heritage property.

Catherine also advises domiciled and non-domiciled clients on the tax implications on their arrival in to or departure from the UK and on the creation of corporate holding and trust structures for the preservation and protection of assets and the associated applicable tax planning.

Catherine also advises philanthropists and charity trustees on charity law issues, philanthropic matters and tax efficient giving including cross border giving. She has extensive experience dealing with vulnerable individuals, both adults and children, and frequently assists with the preparation of asset protection structures and lasting powers of attorney often working with medical advisers to obtain the best outcome to protect the individual.

Examples of recent work

• Advising on the creation of several asset holding structures to hold assets in different geographic locations to enable trustees of a private trust company to control the businesses after the death of the settlor and manage the long term devolution of the assets to the next generation
• Advising on an asset holding structure with a private trust company for the transparency of the structure and the protection of the underlying companies for charitable purposes
• Advising Charity trustees on the implications of an investigation by the Charity Commission
• Advising on the merger of two charities with similar objects
• Advising a Spanish based entrepreneur regarding becoming UK tax resident and domiciled to ensure that his move from South America via Spain was compliant
• Advising the executors of an estate regarding the consequences of historic tax planning schemes that the deceased had entered into many years previously
• Advising on the preparation of a vulnerable person’s trust to protect assets for the next generation
• Advising a vulnerable individual on the implications of court hearings on a trust structure under challenge
• Advising a vulnerable individual on the use of trust assets to pay for health treatment
• Advising on the variation of an estate with cross border aspects
• Advising on the consequences of remitted tainted capital in accounts held offshore by a UK resident individual and the implications of the deemed domicile rules
• Advising an entrepreneur on the possibilities of moving to a European country to make the most of new tax incentives offered by each jurisdiction

Career to date

Catherine qualified in a City law firm in 1998 as a private client lawyer, she transferred to Italy with an international firm as an associate in finance and subsequently opened her own legal business in Italy advising private clients, trustees and family offices on their cross border requirements. Since her return to the UK she has continued to advise both UK and international clients.