Probate Practitioners Conference

Dan joined the Quality Assurance Department (QAD) of ICAEW in 2017, having previously been a manager in the audit practice of a national firm. He manages QAD’s probate monitoring as well as leading a team of reviewers who carry out audit, Practice Assurance (PA) and DPB monitoring visits to a range of firms. He is also involved with our third-party contracts with The Institute and Faculty of Actuaries as well as with other regulators based overseas. Dan also manages QAD's Licensed Practice monitoring for firms registered as ATOL Reporting Accountants.

Julie Butler FCA qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1980 and founded the firm of Butler & Co in 1986. This business now trades as Butler & Co Alresford Ltd and Butler & Co Audit Ltd. Julie is a farm and equine tax specialist and is also an authorised individual licensed by the ICAEW to carry out the reserved legal activity of non-contentious probate in England and Wales. 

Julie is the author of Tax Planning for Farm and Land Diversification and Equine Tax Planning as well as co-author of Stanley: Taxation of Farmers and Landowners with Malcolm Gunn CTA (Fellow). Julie is also editor of Farm Tax Brief. Julie and her team provide tax consultancy services direct to the farming and equine industry and to other accountants, land agents and solicitors on farming diversification, bloodstock and all areas of the equine world. 

Julie writes regularly in all the technical tax press and has a reputation for a fresh approach to subjects such as the need for partnership agreements, succession planning, all areas of development land, the definition of farming, woodlands, furnished holiday accommodation and all farm property concerns in this current complicated economic climate. Recent areas of tax writing have included Natural Capital, Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) with the impact on development, the Agriculture Act 2020 focusing on the changing subsidies, tax protection around pony paddocks, mixed rate SDLT and rewilding. Consideration has been given to interaction with Will planning, TRS registration of partnerships, and Stud losses. Julie lectures regularly to a large variety of audiences through various organisations and to the rural community directly.

Professor Lesley King is a former member of the Probate & Estates Committee of STEP, a former member of the Law Society’s Wills & Equity Committee and an honorary member of the Association of Contentious Trust and Probate Specialists. She is Professional Development Consultant at the University of Law.

She is co-author of Wills, Taxation and Administration: A Practical Guide; A Modern Approach to Wills, Administration and Estate Planning (with Precedents);  A Modern Approach to Lifetime Tax Planning for Private Clients (with Precedents); A Practitioner’s Guide to Wills; Varying the Disposition of an Estate after Death; Wills: A Practical Guide; and editor of The Probate Practitioner’s Handbook.

She is a contributor to the Wills and Trusts volumes of Halsbury’s Laws and the Encyclopaedia of Forms and Precedents and to The Law and Ethics of Dementia. She is the wills and probate columnist for the Law Society Gazette, and writes and lectures extensively on wills, taxation and related matters.

Amanda Fisher began her career with HM Revenue and Customs and later moved over into practice and qualified with Grant Thornton where she gained considerable experience dealing with private tax clients and their businesses, trusts and estates. Since becoming self employed in 2004, Amanda has her own tax and accountancy practice of private clients, alongside her other freelance work as a lecturer, examiner and author. She also regularly works as a consultant to firms and practitioners on an array of tax matters, specialising in capital taxes, trust and estate matters. Amanda has devoted time as a committee member for STEP and ICAEW and is currently a branch committee member for ATT/CIOT.

Pat is a tax consultant lecturer at Mercia Group. Pat originally trained and worked in the profession for Ernst & Young, Grant Thornton and KPMG before moving to the University of Derby as their senior tax lecturer. Her time at Derby included undergraduate and professional tax training as well as being involved in examinations and publishing projects for ACCA and other professional bodies.

This led to a ten-year period with the Financial Training Company (now Kaplan) where she was Tax Product Director for the Midlands as well as becoming well known as a prominent exam-based tax lecturer. Over her career Pat has been actively involved in the tax professional bodies including serving as a Council member for 12 years for the Association of Taxation Technicians.