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Portrait of Sonia Dhesi

Profile

Sonia is a senior associate in the private client team in Guildford.  

With over 15 years’ legal experience, she specialises in wills, powers of attorney, estate administration, trusts and inheritance tax planning. She has a particular interest in cross-border estates, having recently attained an additional STEP qualification specific to cross border estate administration. She thrives on problem-solving and advising clients on succession planning and tax mitigation strategies.

Sonia joined the firm in 2023, having previously worked for other leading law firms in the Surrey and Thames Valley regions. She is a full member of STEP, the world's leading organisation for private wealth professionals.

Recent work highlights

  • Mitigating capital gains tax on the sale of assets through the course of administering an estate to reduce its tax burden, by appropriating assets to residuary beneficiaries and their spouses.
  • Assisting with the administration of large value estates consisting of worldwide property and business interests.
  • Advising high net worth clients on succession planning via wills and the setting up of lifetime trusts.
  • Mitigating inheritance tax, investigating lifetime gifting patterns and taking advantage of various reliefs, including the reduced rate of inheritance tax in situations where a proportion of the estate passes to charity.
  • Investigating historic trust arrangements to ascertain which assets should have passed into trust at the time of the first spouse’s death and the tax implications on the death of the surviving spouse.

Penningtons Manches Cooper LLP

Penningtons Manches Cooper LLP is a limited liability partnership registered in England and Wales with registered number OC311575 and is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority under number 419867.

Penningtons Manches Cooper LLP