We adopt a holistic and proactive approach to estate planning. This is why our financial services and wealth management departments regularly liaise with our legal team to see where we can add extra value in other areas. For example, clients advised by our wealth management division that have complex estates and a significant high net worth will be referred to our legal team for estate planning services.  Our estate planners liaise with our wealth advisers about a client's goals, family circumstances and so forth, and then meet with the client together to discuss legal recommendations. More often than not this will involve mitigation of an inheritance tax liability that has built up over time. We have now successfully mitigated over £10 Million of IHT from our clients estates to October 2011.

We also work with some of the UK’s leading law firms who at times we will deploy to act for our clients when specific legal needs arise. The UK is a leading international law centre, with four of the six largest legal companies in the world and over 200 foreign firms. At last count in 2008 the sector employed 117,000 solicitors and 16,000 barristers, so finding the right lawyer or firm can take a significant amount of time. Understanding this vast market position led us to build certain legal solutions into our own proposition, and clients now benefit from a range of specialist services designed to assist in a number of key areas. Our industry position and experience is such that we are perfectly placed to identify individual lawyers and firms who are able to provide the necessary direct support to our clients as and when required.

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