Laura McDonagh

Solicitor

Laura is a Solicitor in the Inheritance Protection team.

Laura specialises in all private client matters, including drafting Wills and Trusts, drafting Lasting Powers of Attorney, acting on Court of Protection matters, estate administration, and general estate planning. She offers personable and clear-cut advice with an empathetic approach, which appeals to clients during the most difficult periods of their lives.

Inheritance Protection Experience

Laura particularly enjoys acting on all aspects of the administration of estates, assisting clients in obtaining the Grant of Representation and managing sometimes complex relationships between personal representatives and beneficiaries.

Having trained and qualified into a property and private client practice in London, Laura has a range of experience advising on property related transactions and structuring such assets in a tax efficient manner.

She also has experience assisting families when a probate matter has turned contentious, working closely with the Litigation team in order to resolve family disputes.

Work Highlights

• Working closely with an Accountant to appoint capital out of a family trust in order to reduce the 10 year inheritance tax charge;
• Working with a Genealogist to trace the family members of a beneficiary overseas who had an interest in property that formed part of a deceased client’s estate;
• Acting on the administration of an estate where some aggrieved family members of the deceased were disputing the applicability of the rules of intestacy, and challenging the entry of their Caveat prior to our client obtaining the Grant of Probate;
• Acting on a Lasting Power of Attorney application for a celebrity entrepreneur;
• Advising on the variation of a high value estate that included a Nil Rate Band discretionary trust and dealing with the impact on the estate of pension benefits that had been paid out during the deceased’s lifetime;
• Drafting a Disabled Person’s Trust.
• Laura and Shipla Khanum, a Solicitor in our Corporate & Commercial team collaborated together to produce the article ‘Tales of the Unexpected’ in which they detailed the importance of business succession planning.

Memberships and Professional Bodies

Laura is an Associate member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP), having completed the Diploma in Trusts and Estate Administration in early 2021.

Laura McDonagh qualified in 2017.