Spear’s Review

Robert Brodrick relishes his role as chair of Payne Hicks Beach’s management board. But the high-flying private client partner insists he is still very much client-facing.

In his own practice, and as part of his role in guiding the strategy of Payne Hicks Beach as a whole, Brodrick is dedicated to advising clients on much more than their tax obligations. ‘The role has evolved over the last 20 years from being very much tax focused in the late 1990s, to being a mixture of tax and succession and family governance advice,’ he tells Spear’s. 

Brodrick’s practice is distinctly international in character, and he has worked with some of the most influential families across the world. ‘The sorts of things we get involved in are often cross-jurisdictional, so we’re dealing with something that straddles the UK and the US, or the US and the Middle East,’ he says.

Adviser Profile

Robert is chair of the Payne Hicks Beach Management Board and a partner in the firm’s private client department. 

With over 25 years’ experience, Robert provides specialist tax, trust and estate planning advice for wealthy individuals, their advisers and trustees. His clients include non-domiciliaries, UK-based families, international families with assets in multiple jurisdictions, landed estate owners and business people. He focuses on three main geographic areas: Middle East, US/UK and UK domestic (including UK resident non-doms). 

Robert has been appointed as a trustee of a number of UK trusts including several that hold heritage assets, and he also acts as executor and is a court-appointed administrator of a large contentious estate. He also acts as protector in relation to offshore trusts. He advises on contentious trust and probate work, and has recently been involved in applications to vary and rectify trusts both in the UK and offshore. Robert has developed a reputation for advising a number of high-profile US families based in the UK (alongside their existing US advisers) and is very experienced at advising Middle Eastern families on the creation and reorganisation of trusts, including sharia-compliant structures. He is known for his sensitive handling of complicated family situations. 

Robert is a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners. He is a prolific legal commentator, speaking at conferences and seminars in a number of locations worldwide, including London, New York, Geneva, the Bahamas, Bahrain, Dubai, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. 

Robert has received numerous industry awards throughout his career. He is regarded as ‘outstanding in his field’ and classed as ‘one of the world’s elite private client lawyers providing expertise to ultra high net worth clients’.