The Supreme Court has ruled that a retired banker who gave his wife nearly £80m to mitigate against inheritance tax (IHT) will not have to split that money equally with her following their divorce, as investments signed over under the tax planning scheme were not matrimonial property.
In the Standish v Standish case, in April 2017, prior to their 2020 divorce, Clive Standish, the former chief financial officer at UBS, transferred investments worth £77.8m to his then-wife Anna Standish as part of a tax planning scheme. The near £80m in assets formed part of the couple's overall total wealth of £132m. The transferred assets had originally been the husband's non-matrimonial property. However, the High Court held that those assets were matrimonial property. In 2022, the High Court split their total assets with £87m going to Mr Standish and £45m to Mrs Standish. The ju...
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