Spear’s Review

‘In a sense, I’m like an architect,’ says Keith Bruce-Smith, a founding partner of boutique private client firm Sinclair Gibson, explaining that he helps to design structures that allow assets to pass from generation to generation effectively, while also being tax-efficient. 

For over four decades Bruce-Smith has advised HNWs on a broad range of tax and trust matters, typically with a view to long-term estate and succession planning. Around half of clients are UK residents, while the remaining half are international, with work taking place across the US, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, the Channel Islands and Switzerland. 

He is also trustee and non-executive director of several significant family wealth structures. ‘I’m passionate about trusts, because if you get assets into a trust as early as possible, you’ve got huge flexibility,’ he says. 

‘The skill is identifying the taxes and their underlying principles – which sometimes don’t mesh. Each tax is a different spinning plate, and my experience has given me a reasonable grounding to knit each of them together.’