Collas Crill

Key Contact

Joanne Seal, Partner

Phone: 01481 734261

Email: [email protected]

Location: Guernsey

Joanne heads up our wills and estates team in Guernsey, having led an international offshore private client practice for more than 15 years.

Joanne specialises in estate planning and advising on inheritance matters, focusing on complex wills for both local and non-resident individuals. She advises on all aspects of estate administration, from undertaking executorships, advising on Guernsey’s probate procedures, dealing with intestacies (where someone has died without a will), to preparing instruments of variation and obtaining Guernsey grants of probate and representation.

Joanne and her team also advise upon local guardianships and powers of attorney, and the recognition of foreign equivalents, property matters with estate connections and a variety of other private client matters. She also acts as the Primary Deputy Registrar of the Bailiwick of Guernsey Probate Registry which oversees the issuing of documentation such as grants of representation and local marriage licences.

Joanne has worked at Collas Crill for the majority of her career after a brief background in matrimonial and child law elsewhere. In addition to her fee-earning responsibilities, and time acting as Deputy Registrar at the local probate Court, Joanne frequently runs a local seminar programme aimed at assisting local organisations and charitable bodies to understand Guernsey’s laws on inheritance and capacity issues. She assists the Citizens Advice Bureau as a peer reviewer (reviewing advice given and ensuring it is correct) and is a co-author of the C.I. chapter of ICGL and ISL succession chapters.

Joanne is ranked tier 2 in Legal 500 and was ranked in the IFC Powerwomen Top 200.

About Collas Crill

Website: www.collascrill.com

We are committed to supporting the third sector, both within our local communities and internationally, and are proud to be the only Channel Islands law firm partner of the ILM.

With offices in Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Guernsey, Jersey and London, we have significant experience in cross-border estate planning and legacy administration and have acted on numerous high-value, complex trust and estate disputes.

Our team has established a wide range of charitable structures from local Guernsey limited by guarantee companies to large charitable foundations for some of the world’s wealthiest families. Our specialist Middle Eastern team also has experience in advising regional families on the principle of Zakat.

Our Channel Islands wills and estates team provide a range of advice and support to legacy managers, including:

• training on the quirks of Guernsey and Jersey in relation to succession and probate;
• pro bono assistance to charities on queries over issues with lay executors, providing guidance on potential resolution through the Guernsey Probate Registry (due to differences in Guernsey and UK procedures);
• liaising on the administration of local estates;
• advising local charities on how they may be able to create and launch legacy campaigns to increase donations via Wills; and
• providing fast and sensitive advice on all types of will-related disputes, regularly acting on multi-party actions for both plaintiffs and defendants.

The culture at Collas Crill

We pride ourselves on being easy to do business with.

Our success is not based solely on our high standards of professional expertise and legal skill, although we wouldn’t be where we are now without those as standard. We are a people business and what really sets us apart is the way we work. We take the time to build trusted relationships with clients so that we can provide tailored advice that delivers real impact.

At Collas Crill, everyone has a voice.

As a firm, we listen, we connect and we understand to get the job done. We recognise the skills, expertise and experience each of us brings to the firm and combine our strengths to deliver for our clients.