Helen Cuthbert joins Menzies family business practice
Menzies has appointed a new Director to drive the firm’s family office vision. Helen Cuthbert arrives with more than 20 years of professional services experience – having spent six years of that with Big Four firms.
Commenting on her hire, Cuthbert said, “This is an exciting time to be a private client advisor because there is so much flux in the marketplace. Over the past 18 months, many people have been reviewing their plans for the future and considering what they may want to do differently… I am looking forward to investing time in getting to know what clients of the firm really want and structuring their assets with this in mind.”
Menzies is a professional services firm headquartered in Surrey. Founded in 1912, the firm is now one of the UK’s largest regional firms to provide accounting and advisory services to privately owned businesses. It hosts eight offices across London and the South of England, and specialises in servicing clients across the healthcare, hospitality, manufacturing, property, retail, transport and technology sectors.
As a new Private Client Tax Director, Cuthbert will develop the firm’s advisory and family-focused services. Based at the firm’s Leatherhead office, she will be leading a team of local private client tax advisers, and working closely with the firm’s Centre of Excellence for trusts. The team will focus on providing holistic advice in areas such as inheritance tax planning, capital gains tax planning, intergenerational wealth and succession planning.
Cuthbert added, “For some people, living through the pandemic has shone a light on the importance of family ties and we have noticed an increase in demand for advice in areas such as succession planning and how to hold investments, such as property assets, in a way that benefits the family as a whole.”
An experienced private client tax advisor, Cuthbert has previously worked at both Big Four and mid-tier firms. Having initially served as an Analyst in private client services in the late 1990s, she joined PwC as a Consultant before becoming a Tax Manager at Baker Tilly, and joining EY – where she was latterly a Senior Manager. Most recently, she was an Associate Director at Mark Davies & Associates.
Speaking on the news, Craig Hughes, Private Client Partner at Menzies, stated, “Having worked alongside Helen previously, I am thrilled that we will now be working together again. She is a positive and inspiring leader who builds strong relationships with her clients and colleagues. With Helen on our side, we will be expanding our offshore and domestic tax planning services and pursuing our family office vision, while continuing to provide strong advisory and compliance support for our clients.”
