Brabners Personal — full-service legal support for individuals and families

Life’s journey is full of unknowns. From building a family to creating Wills and trusts, buying or selling property, land or a business, planning for your succession or dealing with a crisis, it helps to have ready access to a multidisciplinary legal team that can support you with whatever life throws your way.

That’s where we come in. Brabners Personal is the solution for whatever you need, whenever you need it — and to demonstrate what it means to be a Brabners Personal client, we’ve produced the following scenario. 

It highlights John and Susan — a couple in their early 60s — who own a business that they’re planning to sell as they approach retirement. 

Read on to find out how our team can support families through every life eventuality.

Meet the family

John and Susan have two children — James, 28, who works for the family business and Sophie, 24, who is a nurse.

James is married to Paul. They live in the UK and have two children who were born through surrogacy in America. Sophie has a boyfriend and is purchasing a property with him, also in the UK.

John and Susan are also planning to sell the family home — worth £2m — to relocate closer to James, Paul and their grandchildren to support with childcare.

Selling the family business

When it comes to selling a business, our deal advisory team can support with finding a buyer, ensuring a smooth sale process and maximising the proceeds. 

John and Susan’s business is expected to sell for £50m — and they need to plan for the potential increased liability to inheritance tax following the loss of the relief on the business asset post-sale.

With support from our private client team and financial partners, the couple can create a plan to support their retirement goals and pass wealth to their children and grandchildren through gifts into Trust and absolute gifts — ensuring tax efficiency. 

In addition to protecting the family’s position, our corporate team can ensure that the company is in good shape for sale. This can include guidance from our health and safety experts at Brabners Protect to identify and resolve any issues, as well as our employment team to ensure that appropriate contracts are in place and conduct a TUPE transfer if necessary. 

Support through surrogacy 

Our family team can assist Paul and James in considering future routes to parenthood and resolving legal parenthood for them following their surrogacy journey.

Our private client team can provide further support to ensure that Wills are in place to protect the children prior to parental orders being made and our immigration law specialists can ensure that all correct documentation is in place to return to the UK after the birth of their children.

Protecting the family’s future

While there are no anticipated relationship concerns, the family is best served by staying alert to the potential impact of divorce on the family business. To mitigate any risks or concerns in the future, we can advise on how to protect their shareholdings in the business through a post-nuptial agreement, which can protect lifetime gifts and inheritances.

A pre-nuptial agreement was put in place ahead of James and Paul’s marriage and reviewed after becoming surrogacy parents.

While unmarried, Sophie and her boyfriend need legal advice so that cohabitation protections can be put in place ahead of their house purchase — particularly due to Sophie being gifted the deposit from her parents. Our residential property team can advise on how that deposit should be protected and how the property should be owned between the couple. 

Passing on wealth 

Our Will and inheritance disputes team is often consulted when a dispute arises following a bereavement. Even with a well-drafted Will and forward-thinking estate planning, challenges can arise when a person believes that there has been an unfair distribution of the estate.

Where family businesses are concerned, a claim that often arises is for proprietary estoppel. This is typically where a promise is made by a parent to their adult children that the family business will be theirs one day. We can explore or defend a claim based on proprietary estoppel, which enables the court to enforce a promise if it would be unfair to let the person who made it to go back on their word. 

This can take place either during the lifetime of the person who made the promise or after their death.

Pursuing a serious injury or medical negligence case

If anyone in the family was to suffer an accident or injury, our medical negligence and serious injury team is here to support and guide families through what can often be a traumatic and emotive journey. 

Once liability is established, we’ll work to quantify the case — including the extent of pain, suffering and loss of amenity and financial losses (such as past and future medical expenses and rehabilitation) as well as loss of earnings (again, past and future earnings if the injuries prevent a return to work). This may also include costs of care and assistance from both family members and professionals, modifications to the home and even a suitable vehicle to enable transportation after the injury.

Our team works with medical experts to assess the full extent of injuries and their long-term impact. We’ll also help to consider lifetime care planning. We can signpost clients to mental health and emotional wellbeing support services as well as to further advice from our colleagues and extensive network of contacts in relation to financial planning, employment issues and Court of Protection matters if there’s any lack of capacity.

Guidance through life’s critical moments 

As well as supporting the family to plan effectively for the future, our team of trusted advisors will be ready to support when the unexpected happens. 

Whether you’re going through a divorce, separation, changes to child arrangements, negotiating an employment contract or any other significant life event, we’ll take the time to understand what’s important to you and provide the practical advice you need to achieve the right resolution.

Talk to us

Brabners Personal brings together award-winning solicitors from our family, private client, employment, litigation, charity, agriculture and landed estates, medical negligence and serious personal injury teams.

Start your journey today by calling 0333 004 4488, emailing us at personal@brabners.com or completing our contact form below.