Profile
Services
Hugo specialises in estate and tax planning. He acts principally for UK families and their trustees, often owning private family businesses or landed estates and heritage property. He helps his clients preserve and protect their assets, to enable them to be handed down to future generations.
Hugo has wide experience of identifying and structuring appropriate assets holding vehicles, such as trusts or family investment companies, to enable family wealth to be managed and preserved. He is a trustee of a number of family trusts and works closely with BDB Pitmans’ trust management team. He also has experience of making applications to court to vary the terms of trusts.
Hugo has a particular interest in advising on inheritance tax planning and structuring for rural estates and family businesses, to maximise the availability of agricultural and business property reliefs.
""'Hugo Smith is a great Partner in BDB Pitmans, professional, pragmatic and helpful. His trust experience is invaluable for us.’
Legal 500
Career highlights
- Helping a family that BDB has advised for more than 100 years to pass their substantial estate in the Cotswolds down to the next generation in a tax efficient manner
- Advising the owners of a large landed estate with significant heritage property on the death of the owner, involving a very substantial number of gifts of chattels to the nation under the acceptance in lieu scheme, in payment of inheritance tax