I trained at Ellis Peirs and Young Jackson and qualified in 1989; I have 25 years’ experience in private client work. I have spent virtually all of my career in private practice, although I spent a brief period working for two charities and also a firm of independent financial advisers.
I deal with complex wills, all aspects of trust and estate administration (including estates with a foreign element), preparation and registration of powers of attorney, wealth protection and planning. I have been appointed and acted as executor and trustee on many occasions. I much enjoy this area of the law and I am described as having a ‘very friendly professional style’.
I am a recommended lawyer in Legal 500 2019 and was described as ‘efficient beyond the call of duty, exceptional and proactive’.
Education
BA – London School of Economics and Political Science
Career
October 2014: Hodge Jones & Allen – partner
2010-2014: CKFT Solicitors (merged with Howard Kennedy Fsi) – partner
2007-2010: variously for two charities and an IFA in London
1986-2007: qualified at Ellis Peirs & Young Jackson and subsequently became a partner there and head of the private client department. EP&YJ merged with Darley Cumberland and became Cumberland Ellis Peirs and then Cumberland Ellis
Client Comments
“I really am grateful for your most prompt and professional service in carrying out my hasty instructions.”
“‘I would particularly recommend Nicola Waldman if you have a will or complicated estate/probate issues to contend with. In our case, at a very difficult time for us, she was sensitive, sensible, efficient and extremely kind. I’ve already recommended her to two friends and will continue to do so.’” A. Brown.
“Nicola Waldman has been handling our probate file. There are no words to describe how polite, efficient, thorough and pro-active she is. She is a top notch lawyer who combines modesty with rigorous knowledge of the law, and makes the complicated feel simple. Rare to find a lawyer of this Calibre.”
Many individuals include gifts in their wills that require an event to happen or an action to take place prior to a beneficiary inheriting (this is called a contingent gift). For example, a will may state that £10,000 is paid to every grandchild on attaining 21 years – which means that if a grandchild does not survive to his/her 21st birthday the gift will lapse (fail). The problem with contingent gifts is that they add complexity to wills and, sometimes, create difficult if not impossible conditions for potential beneficiaries to meet.
With distrustful spouses and threats of divorce, it is all too common a question as to how can someone protect any family inheritance from reaching the hands of a divorced spouse? Whilst a Financial Order may be able to resolve this issue by agreeing asset division upon divorce, a Discretionary Trust is the next best solution...
The recently reported case of stepsisters asking the Court to rule whose parent died first to determine which of them should inherit, relates to the little known commorientes rule.
I trained at Ellis Peirs and Young Jackson and qualified in 1989; I have 25 years’ experience in private client work. I have spent virtually all of my career in private practice, although I spent a brief period working for two charities and also a firm of independent financial advisers.
