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Unpacking the Budget: the impact on UK businesses
Sophie Voelcker
FRENCH VERSION / VERSION FRANÇAISE
Sophie is a partner in Kingsley Napley's Private Client team.
Sophie focuses on advice to UK resident and/or domiciled clients regarding wealth structuring, estate planning and trusts, with a particular interest in any cross-border taxation and succession issues for clients with international assets or who have relocated abroad. Sophie also has experience providing such advice in the context of matrimonial disputes and pre-nuptial agreements.
Sophie joined Kingsley Napley in 2024 from private client boutique New Quadrant Partners where she had been a partner since 2017. She trained at Payne Hicks Beach and is a member of STEP.
Sophie is included in the Private Client Global Elite Directory 2025 and received a Gold award for “Lawyer of the Year – Partner” in the Citywealth Future Leaders Awards 2021. She has been recommended in the Legal 500. She is also included in the Legal Pages 2025 directory.
What clients and directories say
I have worked very closely with James Ward and Sophie Voelcker for many years. Both have great technical knowledge and deliver sensible generational planning solutions to a wide range of clients."
The Legal 500, 2025
Sophie is fantastically client-centric, extremely technically astute, and a great collaborator. She is an absolute pleasure to work with."
Citywealth Leaders List
Having worked with Sophie for a number of years I can absolutely attest to her excellent client management and communication skills and her desire and ability to solve problems for HNW families with minimum fuss."
Citywealth Leaders List
She is an excellent lawyer - always providing clear advice and going the extra mile for her clients. Her knowledge is second to none and she always delivers on time."
Citywealth Leaders List
Very strong and capable of handling delicate matters for demanding UHNW clients.”
Legal 500
Case studies
Case study 1 - Estate planning for UHNW family
I acted for an UHNW client to create a Family Investment Company (FIC) in which he and his children are shareholders. After a particularly acrimonious divorce, this FIC was a reconciliatory way to show his children (and ex-wife) that he was committed to still being a “family” and also a clever way to involve his children in estate planning. The growth in the FIC will belong to the children and outside of his estate for inheritance tax purposes but funds have started to pass to the next generation in a timely fashion. The children are hugely appreciative and attend annual board meetings along with the client, while he was very pleased with the formation of the FIC and how I was able to support and advise him throughout this sensitive family time.
He has also entered politics at a very high level and is under direct public scrutiny. I therefore considered how the planning looks from every possible angle and factored this into the type of company we incorporated, ensuring confidentiality is paramount.
Case study 2 - Tax, trust and succession advice to cross-border family
I worked with a prominent international family with significant UK trust interests invested through an open-ended investment company (OEIC) and in UK and foreign property.
I acted for three generations of the family on all aspects of private client advice covering extensive succession planning, trust administration and UK tax advice for the family members, trustees and beneficiaries, to include coordinating all foreign legal and tax advice for the family members who are resident outside the UK.
I established a new LLP to hold the large family estate in the UK run as a profitable business in order to preserve inheritance tax reliefs. I also created a new development company to carry out additional work to the estate to add significant value to the family’s portfolio and arranged three competitive commercial loans for the LLP and trustees in order to refinance the existing structure and provide further working capital to invest in the estate.
Publications and press
- 60 seconds with Sophie Voelcker - ThoughtLeaders4 HNW Divorce Magazine, November 2024
- Britain's death tax hot spots revealed as Government looks to raid inheritances - Express, August 2024
- Top 10 people moves - January 2024 - ePrivateClient, February 2024
- People in the news - Accountancy Daily, January 2024
- Kingsley Napley adds private client partner from New Quadrant Partners - ePrivateClient, January 2024
- Who’s Moving Where In Wealth Management? – Ocorian, Aviva Investors, Kingsley Napley - Wealth Briefing, January 2024
