Bruce Clarke

Bruce leads Rix & Kay’s Private Client offering that services clients across the South East and London. With more than 15 years’ experience of advising individuals on how to effectively manage their personal wealth, he has a detailed understanding of personal tax planning, creation of trusts and the administration of estates.

Bruce is regarded as one of the most influential private wealth lawyers in Kent and his reputation extends across the region where he also works closely with clients is Sussex and into London. He is ranked by both leading independent research journals, Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners.

Bruce’s clients

Bruce works closely with high net-worth individuals, business owners and families, helping them to grow and protect their personal wealth and assets for the benefit of themselves, their families and successive generations. He also works with trustees and executors who are responsible for managing and dealing with complex trusts and estates.

Experience and approach

Bruce is praised by clients for his ability to build up a solid understanding of their personal circumstances and guide them with empathy rather than simply providing yes/no answers to problems.

It is this approach, coupled with his detailed knowledge of the legal framework that surrounds tax, trusts and estate planning, that allows his clients to understand the issues they face and make fully informed decisions as a result.

Bruce is a full member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP)

Areas of expertise

• The administration of estates
• Creating trusts
• The administration of trusts
• Will drafting
• Estate planning
• Tax planning
• Lasting Powers of Attorney and Enduring Powers of Attorney

Bruce’s work

Complex estate administration

Bruce worked in partnership with a high net worth individual advising them on their estate worth in excess of £10 million which comprised of various properties, investment portfolios, and loans and gifts made to the client’s children. Bruce advised on both the practical and tax implications of leaving part of their estate to their children and the remainder to charity.

Advising executors and beneficiaries

Bruce dealt with the administration of the estates of two clients who died within quick succession of each other which consisted of a valuable property and various investment portfolios. The three ultimate beneficiaries each wanted to receive their entitlement to the estates in differing ways and it was necessary to advise the executors on how best to structure this in the most tax efficient way; and to ensure that each beneficiary received the sum they were entitled to, whilst dealing with other inheritance tax issues arising within the estate itself.

What Bruce’s clients say

This latest service by Bruce Clarke was an amendment to my original will. I found him efficient and very helpful, offering sound advice.

Anonymous, Client Satisfaction Survey, April 2024

Very happy with the service and the details we were informed of – so happy with paperwork and communication.

A. Walsh, Client Feedback, July 2020

Bruce Clarke is a member of STEP, a global professional body, with more than 21,000 members comprising lawyers, accountants, trustees and other practitioners that help families plan for their futures.

Find out more about STEP.

“Team leader Bruce Clarke has wide-ranging private client experience and advises on complex tax and estate planning work, creating and administering trusts, and advising on powers of attorney and mental capacity law.”

Rix & Kay recognised as ‘a highly capable team of lawyers offering proactive advice’ delivered with ‘personality’