Mark Studer

Private Client CV

Trusts

Mark has long experience in dealing with all aspects of the law of trusts and settlements arising both in the UK and from overseas jurisdictions and he is particularly recommended for his drafting skills.

Recent/notable cases include:

• Advising and acting for a large class of the beneficiaries of a very substantial offshore discretionary trust in relation to claims to entitlement under the trust by illegitimate, legitimated and adopted descendants of the settlor; and negotiating a settlement of all such claims and other claims relating to the trustees' administration of the trusts over many years.
  
  
• Advising with leading Revenue counsel in relation to the possibilities for claiming relief by numerous clients whose contributions to Funded Unapproved Retirement Benefit Schemes held in trust (involving several millions of pounds in all) were unexpectedly charged to income tax by HMRC.
  
  
• Advising and drafting documentation in relation to the settlement of a claim for ancillary financial relief on divorce by the wife of a beneficiary of a traditional landed estate (including provisions for housing wife and children and other maintenance from the estate following divorce).
  
  
• Advising a HNWI (high net Worth individual) as beneficiary of an offshore settlement with regard to breach of trust claims against his trustees occasioned by their very substantial investment of trust funds in certain US financial instruments, and whether or not the trustees had thereby been guilty of gross negligence for the purposes of an exculpation clause in the settlement.
  
  
• Advising the trustees of two will trusts as to their duties and obligations (and possible conflicts of interest) in relation to their exercise of dispositive powers under the wills where (in the circumstances of a divorce) the divorcing husband was himself a trustee and where (after the making of the decree nisi) an appointment of property was proposed to be made in favour of the divorcing wife in order to resolve all issues of financial provision.
  
  
• Advising the trustees of very substantial offshore trusts controlling worldwide business interests as to the manner in which English law would view proposed variations of the trusts under the local variation of trusts jurisdiction; and providing advice and submissions for the offshore lawyers piloting a local variation of trusts application to alter the class of beneficiaries.
  
  
• Drafting documentation and advising in relation to the variation of the trusts of a very substantial estate, including advising the deceased's executors in relation to an on-going dispute with the Revenue as to the proper incidence of inheritance tax.
  
  
• Advising and preparing draft documentation for the trustees of several substantial family trusts having regard to the inheritance tax position of the trusts in consequence of the provisions of the Finance Act 2006 and necessary resulting tax planning.
  
  
• Advising trustees of a 1920s settlement established in South Africa as to questions of the conflict of laws and the proper law of the settlement with regard to claims to benefit by adoptive issue of the settlor.   
  
  
• Advising as to capital gains tax implications of proposed settlement of ancillary relief proceedings in a big money divorce case.
  
  
• Settling the terms of a family arrangement between different branches of a landed family where the estates included settled land in different jurisdictions, there were issues of the conflict of laws and one party's claim to an entailed interest was rendered doubtful by the fact of his being legitimated.
  
  
• Negotiating settling and piloting through the court an application to vary the intestate trusts of a domiciled Englishman dying in Spain in order to minimise the inheritance tax on his death.
  
  
• Drafting documentation and advising the trustees of entailed landed estates as to certain tax planning proposals seeking to take advantage of the entailed status of the settled property.
  
  
• Settling standard documentation of a shared equity scheme for general use with borrowers by a major clearing bank.

Wills, probate, succession and inheritance and administration of estates

Mark deals with all contentious and non-contentious aspects of the law relating to wills, probate, succession and inheritance and the administration of estates, including cases falling within the jurisdiction of the Court of Protection.

Recent / notable cases include:

• Advising as to the negotiation and drafting for the court-appointed administrators of an estate of the terms of settlement of a claim that an employee pension trust established by the deceased was partially void for perpetuity and/or uncertainty with a consequential reversion of property to the estate; involving complex issues of the law relating to perpetuities and difficult actuarial evidence.
  
  
• Preparing, advising on and acting in an Inheritance Act claim by the widow of a high net worth individual involving considerations of the apportionment of residential, business and development property comprised in the estate and the consequences for the deceased's share in a partnership running a garden centre; negotiating and drafting documentation for the settlement of the claim.
  
  
• Advising in relation to the effects in English trust and tax law of a 'pour-over' will and a 'living trust' previously established in the USA by a high net worth individual who was an American citizen now resident in the UK and seeking to make dispositions of English property.
  
  
• Advising executors as to the proper treatment in an administration of lifetime gifts appearing to have been procured by the undue influence of the donor's attorney, with consideration of issues of capacity and resulting trusts.
  
  
• Drafting documentation and advising in relation to the rearrangement of the affairs of a substantial estate in order to maximise the benefit of agricultural and business property relief for inheritance tax.
  
  
• Advising the trustees of a will trust associated with the maintenance of an historic stately home (and which had already twice been the subject of litigation) as to the proper construction of the will in the light of previous court orders and as to the present possibilities of winding up the trust.
  
  
• Negotiating to a successful conclusion a family provision claim in a substantial estate for the long-term live-in dependant of the deceased testatrix whose status as a quasi-spouse was disputed by her family.

Charities

Mark has a particular interest in the law of charities and also has practical experience in this field as a director of the barristers' Benevolent Association and a trustee of a number of other charities.

Recent / notable cases include:

• Advising trustees on complex issues of governance and trusteeship, remuneration of trustees, breach of trust, removal and suspension of trustees, conflicts of interest and natural justice in dealing with complaints against trustees.
  
  
• Advising with company law counsel as to the fiduciary duties of the trustees of an incorporated trust for the advancement of education and the mechanics of a proposed joint venture with an overseas university.
  
  
• Advising the trustees of a religious community as to what restrictions may historically have applied to expenditure of the charity's capital; advising upon and drafting an application to the Charity Commission for authority to expend capital; and considering guidance on the subject given to the trustees by the Charity Commission.
  
  
• Advising the committee of a charitable unincorporated association as to issues of governance, the correctness of an opinion of the Charity Commission concerning the interpretation of the association's constitution, and the powers of the committee to determine the association's policy with regard to involvement with the 2012 Olympic Games.
  
  
• Advising the trustees of two charities as to the effects of a Charity Commission scheme to amalgamate their funds and the procedures for objectors to seek a review and/or appeal for the purpose of challenging the scheme.
  
  
• Advising a local authority in relation to recreational land which it owned for the benefit of local inhabitants and which it was proposing to re-develop as a leisure centre as to (i) the effects of forfeiture and reverter provisions in the original grants of the land to the council's predecessor if the land ceased to be used as an open space (ii) whether the land fell within the jurisdiction of the Charity Commission as subject to a charitable trust (which the Charity Commission contended) and (iii) if so, whether the scheme for redevelopment was achievable by means of a Charity Commission scheme.
  
  
• Advising a multi-national company in relation to its proposals to establish trusts for the education of the children of deceased or needy employees; considerations of the comparative merits of charitable and non-charitable trusts for the purpose and providing necessary draft documentation.
  
  
• Advising a large national charity on its ability to take under the will of a testatrix who died in 2007 the benefit of certain testamentary gifts to a residential home which had closed in 1993;  consideration of the law on gifts to once-existing charitable institutions and cy-près applications.