Jonathan Gater

Jonathan Gater is a partner in our leading Wills, Probate Tax & Trusts team and one of the firm’s joint managing partners. He advises clients from both our Reading, Henley-on-Thames and Wokingham offices, as well as remotely.

Jonathan specialises in trust and estate administration, Powers of Attorney and Court of Protection matters. He acts as Attorney for a number of clients, assisting them with the day-to-day management of their affairs and also regularly acts as executor or trustee for clients.

Jonathan works closely with the rest of our team, who are specialists in Court of Protection matters. They regularly act for people who are under the jurisdiction of the Court of Protection and are experienced in acting as independent deputies for incapacitated people, and making deputyship applications for family members who wish to be appointed.

Jonathan is a longstanding member of The Association of Lifetime Lawyers (formerly Solicitors for the Elderly), an independent, national organisation of lawyers (solicitors, barristers and legal executives) who provide specialist legal advice for older and vulnerable people, their families and carers and a trained Dementia Friend, an Alzheimer's Society initiative. He is recommended in the UK's leading guides to law firms, Chambers HNW and The Legal 500, with the latter naming him a 'leading partner'. 

Since 2002, Jonathan has been the Under Sheriff for Berkshire and he is also an authorised High Court Enforcement Officer.

Examples of recent work

• Dealing with complex estates, including recently acting on a multi-million pound estate of a member of Lloyd’s of London Insurance Market.
• Lifetime tax planning, including inheritance tax planning for a wealthy individual, including drafting an appropriate will and establishing a trust and a family investment company to help manage the family wealth.  This involved considering the implications of both Capital Gains Tax (CGT) and Stamp Duty (SDLT) as part of the planning.
• Currently acting as attorney under both enduring powers of attorney and lasting powers of attorney, or as a Court of Protection appointed Deputy, for a large number of incapacitated clients.  These include a relatively young client with a severe brain injury as well as managing the financial affairs of wealthy elderly clients.
• Advising on various applications to the Court of Protection.  In addition to applications for the appointment of deputies, advising on applications for authority for attorneys/deputies to make gifts and statutory wills.  A recent contested application went to trial where the court not only granted the application requested, but also ordered the objecting party to pay the costs of the application.  In another matter, acting for a client who was being excluded from the proposed statutory will, when a move favourable will was secured by negotiation without the need to go to trial.
• Acting for trustees in connection with the administration of trusts and is regularly invited to act as an independent trustee following disputes.
• Complex applications to the Probate Registry, including acting for a number of creditors seeking to recover assets from unadministered estates as well as applications for orders for personal representatives to be appointed in preference to those entitled.