Lee is one of a few solicitors in Dorset to be dual qualified as a Solicitor and Chartered Tax Advisor. This enables him to offer highly specialised tax planning advice on complex cases and continues to be regarded as one of the area’s leading Wills & Tax practitioners, adopting a pragmatic and down to earth approach to the tax and legal complexities facing his clients. Both Lee and the team are recommended in the 2021, 2022 and 2023 Legal 500, the independent guide to law firms in the UK.
Work
Lee is qualified as both a solicitor and chartered tax advisor. He qualified as a solicitor in 1996 and joined Frettens in 2009 as a Partner. He is a current member and past Chairman of the Bournemouth Branch of the Society of Trust & Estate Practitioners and has also been a member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation since 2003.
Lee is able to advise on most aspects of personal tax, wills and succession. This includes the creation, administration and termination of all types of private trusts, estate administration and tax compliance and planning for individuals, personal representatives and trustees.
Lee specialises in will writing, powers of attorney, estate and trust administration, trust creation, tax compliance and tax planning generally as well as advising on equity release and lifetime mortgage applications.
Lee has a genuine interest and expertise in Trusts, which is recognised by local accountancy and financial adviser referrers as well as other local solicitors, all from whom instructions are regularly received. Lee is happy to advise both trustees and beneficiaries alike, and acts as trustee in over 100 trusts, and as such the team is one of the few in the area confident and happy to deal with trust work.
Experience
- Review and updating of wills, advising in relation to existing and new family trust arrangements.
- Estate planning and trusteeship – review and update of wills and appointments as trustee.
- Trusts and estate planning involving asset restructuring and using settled BPR assets to avoid inheritance tax, working in tandem with the clients’ wealth manager to come up with a blended trust and investment solution to the immediate and future tax issues.
- Drafting wills, trust and POA for an estate worth in excess of £2m.
- Review and update of wills and advising on IHT mitigation for an estate worth c.£10m.
Play
Lee is married with two teenage daughters and is a keen football fan, now splitting his allegiances between his historical love for Dennis Bergkamp and Arsenal and, through his wife, a new found love for AFC Bournemouth. He also plays trumpet in a local wind band. Lee’s ability to fail to match a shirt with a tie is unsurpassed in the office, but fortunately for somebody who is qualified as both a solicitor and an accountant (and therefore doubly dull!) he has a very good sense of humour.