Ed Powles

“Recognised by everyone as a brilliant lawyer”, Ed Powles advises on a range of private client and commercial trusts work.

Ed’s focus is on domestic and international private client work. He has considerable experience in complex succession and trust law issues, and advises UK and international individuals on UK personal tax. He also advises charity trustees, counterparties and donors on charity law and philanthropy.

In addition to his wider private client practice, Ed has a keen interest in the law relating to art, and has led the firm’s Art and Cultural Property team since 2019.

Ed is ranked by both the latest Chambers & Partners (HNW) and Legal 500 guides as a leading lawyer for Private Wealth matters, with Chambers describing him as “phenomenally clever and switched on. For particularly knotty issues, Ed is your man.” Others comment that Ed is “extremely sophisticated and provides an extraordinarily high level of client service.”

The Legal 500 also notes that Ed is a “a brilliant and committed practitioner” in the area of art and heritage property.

Ed was included in the 2024 edition of Best Lawyers, with recognition for his work in Trusts and Personal Tax and Charities, and was named by Who’s Who Legal as a Recommended lawyer in their 2023 Private Client report.

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Expertise

Ed has advised on long-running and complex disputes with HMRC in relation to a range of technical tax matters. His recent experience includes settlement of a long-standing technical dispute with HMRC in relation to a complex series of commercial transactions.

Ed has led the firm’s Art and Cultural Property team since 2019. He advises a range of clients on art and heritage property related matters. He deals with both domestic and international transactions and structures. He has a particular interest in conflict of laws issues and the difficulties that can arise in relation to title to artwork and heritage property.

He is a contributor to the new edition of Professor Norman Palmer’s text on art loans.

His experience includes:

advising on the use of structures to hold artwork;
advising on complex tax issues associated with the acquisition, enjoyment and sale of high-value artwork;
advising on title issues in relation to unusual asset classes;
advising on conflict of law issues and limitation issues in the context of a title dispute with complex underlying facts;
advising on domestic loan and funding agreements.

Ed advises UK and international individuals, trustees and private banks on a range of traditional and more complex private client matters. His experience ranges from traditional estate planning (including testamentary planning, lasting powers of attorney and probate) to more complex family succession and taxation matters.

He regularly advises on the creation, administration and taxation of trusts (both in the UK and outside the UK) in order to achieve a variety of goals, from traditional succession planning, to achieving protection under international investment treaties. He frequently advises on the complex trust law issues that arise out of existing trusts.

Much of Ed’s work is international in nature, and he has substantial experience of advising in relation to difficult conflicts of law issues, including the new Brussels IV Regulation, in the context of international trusts and succession planning.

He frequently advises individuals who are planning to become tax resident and/or domiciled in the United Kingdom 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. He has a particular interest in the UK aspect of tax planning for individuals with connections to continental Europe and the Middle East.

In addition to advising on non-contentious tax and estate planning, Ed has experience of high-profile and highly sensitive tax investigations.

Recent experience includes:

Establishing dynastic trusts for a number of Middle-Eastern families;
Advising on the use of trusts to access investment protection under various bilateral investment treaties;
Advising on the tax consequences associated with the acquisition of high-value residential and commercial property and artwork in the UK;
Advising trustees on complex UK taxation issues associated with a relocation of certain beneficiaries to the UK;
Advising an individual on potential personal exposure as guarantor under a multi-million dollar loan facility;
Advising on the impact of the “Brussels IV” Regulation and general conflicts of law principles in relation to a complex multi-jurisdictional estate; and
Advising on the implications of the CRS, FATCA and DAC6 in a variety of contexts.

Ed advises financial institutions, law firms and institutional trustees on a range of trust law issues associated with finance trusts (including securitisations), decommissioning trusts, unit trusts, escrow trusts and other specialist commercial trust vehicles. He has experience of drafting bespoke, complex commercial trusts, as well as advising on trustees’ duties and liabilities arising under commercial trusts, and UK taxation implications of various types of trust.

He also gives advice on particular considerations that apply when trustees (rather than individuals or companies) enter into a range of commercial transactions, including company sales and acquisitions. Recent experience includes:

Drafting a reinsurance finance trust;
Drafting a bespoke trust deed for a major infrastructure project in Saudi Arabia;
Advising on the UK inheritance tax consequences that may result from particular points of drafting of a range of commercial trusts (including oil and gas decommissioning trust deeds);
Advising trustees on the investment of unclaimed funds arising following the repayment of a bond issue;
Advising a major institutional note trustee of its obligations to participate in litigation in the absence of being able to obtain requisite noteholder consent; and
Advising on the range of trustee powers, and level of dispositive discretion, appropriate in the context of a unit trust with UK resident settlors and UK situate assets.

Ed advises on the formation and ongoing administration of charities, and the duties of charity trustees. He has particular experience of advising on a range of governance and taxation issues, including the impact of the “tainted donations” rules, and conflicts of interest faced by charity trustees.

He also advises high net worth individuals and others on philanthropy, including the formation of UK and international charities. He routinely advises on tax-efficient giving through the Gift Aid scheme and ancillary tax issues.