Diva Shah is an Senior Associate in the Private Client team. She is a full member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) and was awarded Woman of the Year for Future Leaders in CityWealth's Powerwoman Awards 2023.
Diva acts for various clients including high net worth individuals, entrepreneurs, executors, trustees, families, companies/businesses and individuals who lack mental capacity on a broad range of matters including,
- lifetime succession and estate planning;
- Wills and Lasting Powers of Attorney;
- succession planning for companies, family businesses and start-ups on exits and on-going planning;
- advising on family investment companies;
- probate and the administration of estates;
- creation of and administration of trusts; and
- applications to the Court of Protection preparing statutory wills and gift applications for those lacking capacity.
Diva has particular experience in providing advice to business owners on succession planning of their businesses including steps to take prior to exit, on-going succession planning for the next gen and family investment companies. Diva recently completed the STEP Advanced Certificate in Advising Family Businesses.
Recognitions and awards
- Diva has successfully completed McKinsey Academy's Management Accelerator program, part of Asian Leadership Academy
- Diva has been awarded Woman of the Year for Future Leaders in CityWealth's Powerwoman Awards 2023.
- Recognised as Highly Commended for the Young Wills & Probate Professional Award in UK's Probate Research Awards 2023
Professional Societies and Memberships
- The Law Society of England and Wales
- Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP)
- STEP Advanced Certificate in Advising Family Businesses
- Diva is an active member of the firm’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee and co-chair of the REACH and Allies Committee.
SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS
Diva regularly produces blogs and was recognised as a Lexology Legal Influencer for Private Client for Q4 2019. Diva has also spoken at a number of events including for Thought4Leaders on Sudden Wealth, including:
- Navigating Sudden Wealth Syndrome, TL4 Conference - 26 June 2023
Publications
- Inheritance tax and gifts: Everything you need to know - This is Money, August 2025
- How to plan your estate if you don't have children - Investors' Chronicle, May 2025
- Contributor to the Volume 42(2) Wills and Administration of the Encyclopaedia of Forms and Precedents (obtaining a grant, administration of estates)
- How do we stop our troubled child gambling away their inheritance? Mail Online, May 2024
- How should advisers deal with clients' digital legacies? Money Marketing, March 2024
- Times up on the remote execution of wills - but for how long? Today's Wills & Probate, February 2024
- Digital legacy planning and Apple’s new feature - Lexis®PSL, January 2022
- Contributor to the Volume 42(2) Wills and Administration of the Encyclopaedia of Forms and Precedents (obtaining a grant, administration of estates)
- Diva answers a question in Moneywise: can an estate go direct to the children to avoid Inheritance Tax? - Moneywise, May 2020
What clients and directories say
Diva did an outstanding job and we would not have managed without her."
Client
Diva has been exemplary, and the work of yourself [James Ward] and your team took the stress out of a complicated situation. "
Client
further information
Diva joined Kingsley Napley in August 2013 as a Legal Assistant in the Regulatory Department and later completed her training contract at the firm. Diva read law and history at Keele University and obtained a distinction in the Legal Practice Course.
