Spear’s Review

With more than 40 years in private practice, including his current position as a partner at Charles Russell Speechlys, Simon Weil’s ‘broader practice’ of private wealth matters is more comprehensive than most.

In addition to tax and trusts planning, a ‘particular focus’ for him these days is philanthropy. He’s hopeful that charitable remainder gifts – a way of giving throughout a lifetime without making an outright gift – will be introduced in the UK. ‘If they were introduced in this country it would make a huge difference to the scale of charitable giving,’ he says.

Weil has noticed an uptick in interest in giving. ‘Philanthropy is taking off because of the realisation among UHNWs and HNWs that they really owe it to society to do some payback,’ he notes.