Caroline Casagranda

Caroline Casagranda is a partner in our leading Wills, Probate Tax & Trusts team and advises clients from our Reading, Henley-on-Thames and Wokingham offices, as well as remotely.

She advises in relation to the preparation of Wills, estate and Inheritance Tax planning, probate and estate administration and lasting powers of attorney (LPAs).

Caroline is recommended in the UK's leading guides to law firms, Chambers HNW Guide and The Legal 500, with the latter naming her as a 'leading individual' in her field. She is a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) and The Association of Lifetime Lawyers (formerly Solicitors for the Elderly), an independent, national organisation of lawyers (solicitors, barristers and legal executives) who provide specialist legal advice for older and vulnerable people, their families and carers. Caroline is also a trained Dementia Friend, an Alzheimer's Society initiative.

After completing her legal training in Maidenhead, she joined Blandy & Blandy in 2003 and became a partner in 2014.

Examples of recent work

• Acting on behalf of an administrator in connection with three linked intestacies to obtain grants and finalise the estates.
• Advising in relation to administration of an estate passing under a will to a minor beneficiary and the execution of a deed of appointment under section 31 and 32 of the Trustee Act 1925.
• Advising a surviving spouse in relation to an election under s.267ZA(1) IHTA 1984 and the further Inheritance Tax implications for substantial  lifetime gifts.
• Dealing with an estate that required forensic analysis of the deceased’s finances uncovering substantial Preferred Equity Traded bonds and subsequently challenging those gifts on the basis of presumed undue influence. Obtaining counsel’s opinion and thereafter negotiating a repayment to the estate.
• Advising in connection with an estate with assets in both England & Wales and Spain and separate wills in each jurisdiction. Submitting a claim for a transferable nil rate band from the estate of the deceased’s estranged spouse who had died some years previously, intestate and apportioning the Inheritance Tax liability between both jurisdictions.
• Obtaining a Grant ad Colligenda Bona following an order made under s116 of the Administration of Estates Act 1925 in circumstances where the deceased’s family could not be located and the property was falling into a state of disrepair.
• Obtaining a grant of representation for the use and benefit of a minor.
• Advising executors on an estate where the structure of the will was such that the residence nil rate band would otherwise have been denied and making use of s144 of the Inheritance Tax Act 1984 to maximise the available allowances accordingly.
• Acting in the administration of an estate with leased farmland and working with the surveyors in order to maximise the availability of agricultural property relief.
• Advising on the structure of tax efficient wills in circumstances where both spouses had previously been widowed and accordingly, with the benefit of an appropriate structure, four nil rate bands could be utilised.