Claire Sharp

Claire is a partner in our highly successful private client team and has over 13 years’ experience in private client work.

Claire has a wealth of experience in trusts, Wills, probate, tax planning and estate administration. As a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP), Claire handles a broad range of work, with particular expertise in trusts and tax planning.

Clients include a large number of wealthy individuals and families who hold substantial business assets, property and personal wealth. Claire has established an excellent reputation in the preservation of these assets for future generations.

Expertise

Claire works with clients mostly from the local area and from all levels of the financial spectrum.

She has detailed experience of trusts and estates matters covering all aspects of administration, from straightforward estates through to complex estates with a foreign element, or business or agricultural property. In particular, she deals with taxable estates and is regularly involved with negotiations with HM Revenue and Customs. She also deals with estates which may become contested.

Claire specialises in trust work and her experience includes drafting, establishing and managing a broad range of lifetime trusts, and of Will trusts, including the appropriate tax planning advice. Claire is appointed as a trustee on many of the trusts that she manages.

Claire is also experienced in lasting powers of attorney, and working with elderly clients in relation to their affairs. She has also advised in relation to deputyship applications, and other Court of Protection applications.

Claire studied law at university as a mature student and went on to obtain a distinction in her LPC. She joined Turner & Debenhams in 2003 (now Debenhams Ottaway) as a trainee lawyer and qualified with the firm. She became a partner in 2011.

In Touch

Claire is a member of the Private Client Section of The Law Society and the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP).

Claire has recently been included in the Tax and Trusts Lawyers section of the 2020 edition of the Spear’s 500.