Certificate in Taxation of Private Clients 2023/2024

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Expert Tutor Bios

Margaret Coleman is a Tax Director in the Private Client Services Team of EY Ireland. She is a Solicitor and Chartered Tax Adviser (CTA) with over 20 years’ experience in tax and is the stamp duty lead for EY Ireland. Margaret works with a wide portfolio of clients including multi-nationals and domestic corporate groups, partnerships, funds and individuals. She has advised extensively on succession planning, corporate restructuring, M&A, exit planning for both Irish domestic and international clients.

Julia Considine is a Director in the Private Clients team in Deloitte. Julia has extensive experience advising private and corporate clients on tax and legal related issues. Julia’s experience in the private client sphere includes advising individuals and their families in relation to tax and succession planning to minimise overall taxation exposure on the transfer of wealth to the next generation and to design and implement a comprehensive succession plan tailored to meet the client’s specific requests. Julia also has considerable experience advising on wills, trusts, estates and family business re-organisations. Julia is a practicing solicitor with the Law Society of Ireland and a Chartered Tax Adviser (CTA). She is also a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP).

Kieran Coughlan is a specialist in farm tax advice and is Principal at Coughlan Accounting & Taxation Services Limited. Kieran is a Chartered Tax Adviser (CTA) and Fellow of ACCA. Kieran is an active member of the Irish Tax Institute Branch Network and has lectured extensively for the Institute and other colleges. Kieran is a regular columnist with the Irish Examiner on farming tax and finance issues. Kieran is an active qualified farmer having trained at Clonakilty Agricultural College.  

Gerard Finucane is a Director in the Private Clients team in Deloitte, based in Limerick. Ger has over 14 years’ of experience advising a broad range of clients including private business owners, high-net-worth individuals, and families on all aspects of their tax affairs. He has particular expertise in dealing with family business succession, business exits, corporate reorganizations, and property transactions. Ger is a chartered accountant with Chartered Accountants Ireland (ACA) and a Chartered Tax Adviser (CTA). 

Dermot Furey advises private clients on all facets of protection, management and passing on of personal and corporate wealth, pensions and other tax driven investments. Working with both private and corporate clients, Dermot is the lead client contact advising on all matters relating to acquisition, funding, development and disposal of all types of property assets and shareholdings in property owning entities. Dermot also counsels private clients on complex family trust arrangements and wills, probate matters and acts as professional trustee, executor and court assigned personal representative in appropriate cases. He has considerable experience advising the bloodstock industry and acts for a number of stud farms and bloodstock owners. As head of the Lending team, Dermot also advises many of Ireland’s leading lenders on a variety of lending transactions including commercial property investments, asset finance and development finance projects. As an experienced practitioner in insolvency matters, Dermot also advises institutions and insolvency practitioners, borrowers, landlords and tenants on all facets of corporate and personal insolvency.

Yann Harrison is the Managing Director of Highfield Private Clients. He is a Fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland, a Chartered Tax Consultant, Qualified Financial Adviser, Retirement Planning Advisor, and a Trust and Estate Practitioner. He specialises in estate and succession planning, corporate reconstructions, business cash extraction opportunities, pre- and post-retirement planning, and pension-technical consultancy.

Aileen Keogan is the Principal of Keogan Law & Tax, a Solicitor, Chartered Tax Adviser (CTA), TEP and a Council member of the Irish Tax Institute. Her practice focuses on wills and estate planning for individuals and businesses, in particular as a consultant to solicitors and accountants. Aileen has written and lectured extensively in the area of estate planning, including her co-authorship of The Law & Taxation of Trusts (Keogan, Mee and Wylie, Tottels 2007) and her annual edit of the CAT section of the Law of CAT, Stamp Duty and LPT (Irish Tax Institute). She is a member of the Law Society’s Probate, Administration and Trusts committee and their representative at TALC Capital Taxes, and she is a member of the STEP Ireland and STEP Europe committees.

Nora Lillis was admitted as a solicitor in Ireland in 2000. She is also a Chartered Tax Adviser (CTA) of the Irish Tax Institute and a member of STEP. She is a former chair of the Probate, Administration and Trusts Committee of the Law Society, former chair of STEP Ireland and former council member of STEP Worldwide representing the Celtic Regions. Nora joined Gartlan Furey LLP as partner and head of the firm’s Private Client team in 2019. Her practice focuses on providing advice in the area of trusts and estates. Nora regularly writes articles and provides seminars on trust and estate issues and is co-author of the sections on settlements and trusts in “Irish Conveyancing Precedents”.

Audrey Lydon is a Senior Director within KPMG’s Private Client and Private Irish Business Practice. She has over 20 years’ experience in Private Client Advisory, including Estate Planning, and Corporate Reorganisations in advance of wealth transfers, as well as international tax on Estate transfers.  Audrey worked in London for many years and is an expert in both UK and Irish tax matters related to individuals, Trusts and Family companies.  Audrey has extensive experience of wealth transfers involving family business, including CGT retirement relief, Entrepreneurs relief, Business Property relief claims and the practical management of share transfers involving active and passive family members.  Audrey is a Fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland and she is a member of the Irish Taxation Institute and Chartered Institute of Tax. 

Lydia McCormack worked as a Senior Associate solicitor in the Matheson Private Client department until she joined O’Connell Brennan as a partner in 2022. Lydia is also a Chartered Tax Adviser (CTA), a Trust and Estate Practitioner (TEP), and holds the STEP Advanced PGDip in Wealth Planning. She is ranked in the Chambers High Net Worth 2023: Private Wealth Law Guide for Ireland, is a member of the STEP Ireland committee, a lecturer for the STEP diploma and regularly presents on issues relevant to estate planning and capital taxes.  Lydia specialises in advising on personal tax and estate planning, trusts, capital taxes and charity law. She also advises on succession law and the administration of deceased estates, often with multi-jurisdictional elements.    

Alison McHugh is a Tax Partner and Head of Private Client Services with EY Ireland. She is a Chartered Tax Adviser (CTA) with over 20 years experience working with high net worth individuals and their families advising them on all aspects of their tax affairs including estate and succession planning, tax efficient transition of wealth to future generations, residence planning, use of trusts and optimal holding structures for holding of certain investments. Alison also works with private companies (both family business and owner managed companies) advising them on a wide range of issues including corporate restructuring, M&A, design and implementation of a governance framework, pre-sale structuring and asset protection strategies.

Conor Meaney leads out the Irish tax scale-up team in PwC. The PwC scale-up team is active in the Irish start-up and growth markets and represents founders, investors, companies and investment funds as clients in the space. Conor has experience dealing with a wide variety of tax efficient investment structures and has significant experience in the areas of SURE, SCI and EIIS. He is also a Chartered Tax Adviser (CTA).

Michael O’Scathaill is a Director in the Tax Department of Crowe Ireland. Michael works with a range of clients from a variety of sectors including food & beverage, construction, waste management and insurance services, advising them on compliance and tax planning across the various tax-heads. Among the areas in which he specialises are corporate structures and restructuring, raising finance tax-efficiently including through use of EIIS, structuring of complex property transactions for developers and investors, and buying and selling of businesses. He regularly speaks to industry representative bodies and to participants on Enterprise Ireland programmes. Michael is a fellow of Chartered Accounts Ireland and a Chartered Tax Adviser (CTA).