Kirsti Harvey

Kirsti Harvey is an associate solicitor in our leading Wills, Probate, Tax & Trusts team and primarily advises clients from our Wokingham office, as well as our Reading and Henley-on-Thames offices and remotely.

She deals with the preparation of Wills, estate and inheritance tax planning, probate and estate administration and drafting lasting powers of attorney (LPAs).

Kirsti initially joined Blandy & Blandy as a secretary in 2013, after graduating with a law degree from the University of Reading. She went on to work as a legal assistant and qualified as a Chartered Legal Executive in 2019 before cross qualifying as a solicitor in 2021. In 2024, Kirsti became an associate solicitor.

Kirsti is a member of 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, and a trained Dementia Friend, an Alzheimer's Society initiative. Kirsti is an associate member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP).

Examples of recent work

• 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.
• Advising clients in relation to lifetime tax planning, including gifts with reservation of benefit and Pre-Owned Asset Tax.
• Obtaining a Grant ad Colligenda Bona by way of an application made under s116 of the Administration of Estates Act 1925, where the deceased’s family and beneficiaries of the estate could not be located and the property was falling into a state of disrepair.
• Acting in the administration of three linked intestate estates to obtain grants and finalise the estates. 
• Advising an administrator in relation to two taxable estates where the eeceased’s died in quick succession. Including making an initial claim for quick succession relief and subsequently executing a Deed of Variation to redirect the entitlement resulting in a substantially reduced Inheritance Tax liability.
• Acting in the administration of an estate with assets across several jurisdictions.