Fiona Poole

Partner
Head of Private Wealth

+44 (0)20 7786 8737 fiona.poole@mtgllp.com LinkedIn Download vCard↓ MTG Recommends

PA: Millie Raftery

+44 (0)20 7786 8650 millie.raftery@mtgllp.com

A superb technical lawyer, very hard-working and fantastic with clients.

Chambers & Partners (HNW)

Fiona Poole is Head of Private Wealth at Maurice Turnor Gardner. Her UK and international HNW clients benefit from her in-depth personal tax expertise.

Fiona specialises in complex estate and succession planning for her clients’ personal and business assets in multiple jurisdictions and international trust issues for high net worth individuals. She has extensive experience in working with families with complex asset-holding structures and diverse tax profiles.

In addition to being a private client lawyer, Fiona is dual qualified as a Chartered Tax Adviser.

Fiona regularly speaks on a variety of private client topics including the taxation of non-UK trusts, UK residential property taxes, inheritance tax and the UK’s transparency initiatives including the beneficial ownership registers for Trusts, UK companies and the proposed register for overseas companies owning UK real estate. Fiona sits on the Chartered Institute of Taxation’s Education Committee.

Fiona is named in both the latest Chambers & Partners (HNW) and Legal 500 guides as a leading lawyer for private wealth law. Clients comment that she is “a superb technical lawyer, very hard-working and fantastic with clients”, with others adding “I refer my friends to her, which is the ultimate sign that I rate her… she makes things feel less overwhelming by putting people at ease”.

She is also identified as a member of the 2023 Private Client Global Elite by Legal Week, and was named as one of the 50 most influential individuals in private wealth by ePrivateclient in 2023.

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Expertise

Fiona has built up an in-depth understanding of the personal tax needs of her high net worth clients, and helps them mitigate their exposure to UK tax both during their lifetime and for future generations. She has a great deal of experience in working with families with complex asset-holding structures and diverse tax profiles.

She regularly advises individuals who are planning to become tax resident in the UK on personal estate planning that may need to be considered prior to arrival, as well as the scope and impact of UK taxation that will apply to them when they become resident.

Fiona also acts for a number of UK families wishing to plan for the succession of their personal and business assets. In addition to ensuring Wills and Lasting Powers of Attorney are in place, Fiona can assist with inter-generational discussions and the composition of family constitutions.

Fiona advises on the formation and ongoing administration of charities and the duties of charity trustees.

Recent experience includes:

advising on a range of governance and taxation issues;
advising on the rectification of unauthorised actions of trustees;
dealing with conflicts of interest faced by charity trustees;
assisting with applications to the Charity Commission to lift restrictions and spend permanent endowments;
establishment of a “friends of” charity in the UK to support charities overseas;
laws relating to overseas grant making.

Fiona’s dual qualification as a solicitor and a Chartered Tax Adviser, as well as her time practising with one of the Big 4, gives her the perfect insight in assisting clients with both the drafting of disclosures to HMRC as well as managing communications and disputes with HMRC.

Her experience includes:

Advising trustees on how to respond to HMRC in response to Schedule 36 information notices, examining what information under the control of the trustees is reasonably required to be provided to HMRC and how legal professional privilege applies.
Assisting clients with ATED and SDLT enquiries relating to UK residential property acquisitions and use.
Working with client’s accountancy and other tax advisers where clients are subject to COP8 or COP9 investigations.
Advising clients and liaising with HMRC on matters of domicile and residence.
Drafting disclosures to HMRC in connection with claims for the motive defence to the application of the Transfer of Assets Abroad code.
Advising on the application of the General Anti-Abuse Rule (the GAAR) to tax planning strategies that may be undertaken.

One of the 50 most influential private wealth practitioners

eprivateclient

She is technically superb, she is both an accountant and a lawyer

Chambers & Partners (HNW)

Very good – knowledgeable, calm and efficient

Legal 500

What others say

Fiona Poole

PartnerHead of Private Wealth

A superb technical lawyer, very hard-working and fantastic with clients.

Chambers & Partners (HNW)

Expertise

One of the 50 most influential private wealth practitioners

eprivateclient

She is technically superb, she is both an accountant and a lawyer

Chambers & Partners (HNW)

Very good – knowledgeable, calm and efficient

Legal 500

What others say

Chambers & Partners

Legal 500

Private Client Global Elite

Partner
Head of Private Wealth