About our Guest Speaker
Helen Forster is a solicitor and Trusts and Estates Practitioner with a specialist focus on Wills, Probate, Trusts, Tax, and Court of Protection matters since qualifying in 2009. A Dementia Champion with Age UK, Helen is also a fellow member of the Association of Lifetime Lawyers and STEP (The Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners).
In addition to legal practice, Helen regularly delivers seminars, lectures, and training across the country for regional Law Societies, MBL Seminars Limited, and other professional bodies. She also provides bespoke in-house training on a wide range of topics, is a contributing author for Tolley’s. and was recently appointed to the Law Society’s Wills and Equity Committee.
Outside of professional training, Helen teaches night classes at Rossett School Adult Learning in Harrogate, offering practical insights into drafting legal documents such as Lasting Powers of Attorney and highlighting common pitfalls.
Helen has been highly commended twice in the Yorkshire Legal Awards and was named Managing Partner of the Year 2025 at the Modern Law Private Client Awards. Her firm, HTF Legal, was awarded Boutique Firm of the Year at the Modern Law Awards 2025.
Seminary details - Trusts from Start to Finish
Trusts can sometimes be overlooked as an option for lifetime planning and their uses within Estates, however when prepared properly these can be great tools in a Practitioner's armoury to ensure that a client's needs are met. These should be considered more than ever as a tax planning tool given the new rules coming into force, and the freezing of the tax allowances until 2030.
Problems can arise however if the Trust is not drafted properly, and this has led to cases where the objectives of the Trust may not be met, or beneficiaries have lost out.
Tax complications can also cause problems, and full advice and careful drafting should be done at the start to ensure the objectives of the trust are being met.
This session is designed to run through lifetime Trusts from start to finish, ensuring you are aware of the pitfalls to be avoided.
What You Will Learn
This seminar will cover the following:
- The most common types of lifetime Trust
- The tax implications of Relevant Property Trusts
- Calculating 10 year and exit charges
- The impact of the BPR/APR changes on 10 year and exit charges
- Case law
- Trust drafting- layout, standard clauses to include, and practical tips
- Common drafting errors to look out for
- Amending a Trust
This seminar is kindly sponsored by Currency Connect.
*Please bring your Business Cards to the event for the chance to be entered into a prize draw run by our sponsors, Currency Connect.
