Deanna Hurst

Partner

Capacity, Care and Court of Protection | Wills, Trusts and Estates

About Deanna

Deanna is a partner in our Private Client team with a wide range of expertise. She acts for individuals, families and charities and enjoys building lasting relationships with her clients.

Deanna started her legal career at Royds (now RWK Goodman following our merger) in 2007 where she progressed to partner in 2011. Deanna studied Law and Criminology at the University of Sheffield and was awarded a distinction for the Legal Practice Course (LPC) by the London College of Law. Whilst studying there she was awarded the Law Society’s National Prize for Outstanding Performance.

The Legal 500 UK recognised Deanna as “efficient, reliable and highly intelligent. She works hard, thinks ahead and forgets nothing.” The same source also commended Deanna for her “excellent client relationship skills”.

As part of Deanna’s role, she regularly attends meetings of the Charity Law Association and the Law Society Private Client Section. She is a fully qualified member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP).

Deanna enjoys walking and cycling in the countryside, cooking and entertaining for friends and family and travel.

Practice areas

  • Estate planning
  • Inheritance tax mitigation
  • Wills
  • Probate and estate administration
  • Trusts
  • Mental capacity including Lasting Powers of Attorney
  • Court of Protection
  • Charity law

Work examples

Estate planning
  • Advising families and business owners in relation to protection, tax efficient structuring and succession. Advising international families on non-domicile status and the ownership, protection and realisation of their UK assets
  • Establishing lifetime trusts and advising on their management
  • Drafting tax efficient Wills
  • Arranging a hybrid offer in lieu of IHT for a pre-eminent archive collection, upon the termination of a family trust of heirlooms
  • Advising elderly and vulnerable clients and those who support them in relation to the management of their finances and family affairs, including the operation of powers of attorney and trusts.
Estate administration

High value estates involving intestacy, foreign assets and foreign trusts, conditionally exempt property, agricultural property, continuing life interest trusts, business assets, private treaty sales and deeds of variation.

Court of Protection

Successful applications on behalf of attorneys including:

  • to make gifts in excess of £1.5m from a client’s wealth for tax planning purposes
  • to execute a deed of variation of a client’s sister’s estate to save £280,000 inheritance tax.
Charities
  • Advising a major religious charity on:
    – the renewal of its Royal Charters;
    – arranging a Charity Commission Scheme to consolidate over 200 sub-trusts into eight main trust funds with bespoke objects; and
    – a variety of trust and governance matters
  • Advising two different charitable trusts, both governed by 1950’s trust deeds, on converting to a CIO
  • Advising the trustees of a major retailer’s employee benevolent fund on the challenges arising from changes in the status of the employer leading to its eventual liquidation.

Memberships

  • Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP)
  • Charity Law Association

"Private client work is for me the perfect combination of intellectual application and personal contact. I enjoy finding solutions for the great variety of issues which arise when advising individuals, families and charities on tax and trust law."

Deanna Hurst