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ESG Diligence: The Key To Sustainable M&A Transactions
AAB / Our Team / Alison Hirst
Meet the Private Client team
High net worth individuals. Family trusts. Professional practices. Barristers.
Oversee trusts linked to my clients. Tax reviews. Tax planning. Partnership tax. Cryptocurrency. Principal private residence relief. Inheritance tax.
Supported by Business Advisory Services.
As a Private Client Senior Manager, Alison Hirst works with a variety of private clients, including high net worth individuals, family trusts, and various professional practices. She also has a portfolio of barristers.
Alison ensures that she builds relationships with her clients, and when working with family trusts she gets to know the family as a whole to better manage the overall tax affairs and advise accordingly on the portfolio. Not limited to compliance work, Alison helps her clients with any advice they might need, whether it’s on Wills or tax planning, or other issues.
“I like it when I’m the first person that clients contact with any queries they may have – it’s nice to be considered a first port of call. It’s always good to know that they trust me and my expertise, and they know that they can come to me with anything.”
“I really enjoy building relationships with clients and building a good rapport with them, getting to know their children and grandchildren. I think this is probably the part of my work that I enjoy the most. Working with the same families for so long (some for over thirty years!) and throughout different life stages means we can develop a working relationship that I genuinely value – they become much more friendly than just a business relationship. I think this added context that you get about clients’ lives really helps as well when it comes to providing excellent and thorough service, and the most relevant advice and recommendations.”
“When it comes to working with colleagues, for me the think I value the most is working as a team. I think that’s absolutely key. We like working with the Trust Payment Trust Department, as well as other teams – the Private Client team doesn’t just operate in isolation. We also work with the Business Advisory Services team, the Audit team, and others. I really like that we have those relationships with other areas of the Group – it really widens the amount of expertise you can draw on, and the number of people you can bring queries to if it falls outside of your area of knowledge.”
“When it comes to communication, I definitely prefer phone calls or face to face meetings, because you get to know more about your clients and how they work. I find clients are also more likely to remember things they meant to tell you and ask you when they see your face or hear your voice! Teams calls and emails are great for efficiency, for quick questions and queries, but generally I prefer more personal forms of communication.”
“There are so many legislative and technical changes to try and keep up with which is a real challenge. You must always keep your finger on the pulse. We ensure that we are signed up to all the relevant email updates from institutes and that we keep on top of all the updates HMRC send through, just to make sure we keep up to date with any and all changes. And as a team we all make sure to help each other with this.”
“It’s an exciting growth journey that AAB is on. And it’s really great to know that with any issue that arises which I or the immediate team don’t necessarily know the answer to, we’re now part of such a large Group that we know we can just call any of the teams in one of the other business units within AAB and someone will know the answer! It’s great having so much expertise and support at your fingertips.”
“My main concern is always supporting my clients – getting to know them, building a good relationship with them, and supporting them in reaching their goals. That’s my priority, my main passion, and my forte. I’m often with my clients for a long time, and I feel quite lucky to be able to see them through a lot of major life events and milestones.
I’m also passionate about our team – I love working as a team, bringing everyone together, and also just making sure we’re able to have a laugh together! I make sure I help to train people up, and help everyone to develop their skillsets and their technical knowledge.
“The greatest compliment I’ve ever received from a client was from someone I’ve been the advisor to for a long time who told me that he would follow me even if I worked at the bottom of the garden in a shed. That meant a lot to me – it felt really good to have my work and our relationship be appreciated like that.”
“One thing that can be tricky about my profession is just keeping up with the everchanging regulations – there’s a lot of red tape to navigate. But everything else I genuinely really enjoy. I love building relationships and I love looking after my clients and helping them achieve everything they want to.”