Bonnie Ward - Trethowans

Bonnie is a Partner in the Private Client team, specialising in complex succession and estate planning for high-net-worth individuals, farming families, and landed estate owners.

She advises clients across multiple generations, helping families preserve wealth, manage change and plan confidently for the future. Bonnie is particularly experienced in structuring succession arrangements that balance family dynamics, tax efficiency and the long‑term sustainability of family assets, including agricultural and rural estates.

Her work frequently involves advising on wills, estate administration, trusts and lifetime planning, with a strong focus on inter‑generational wealth transfer and governance. Bonnie understands the unique commercial and personal pressures faced by farmers and estate owners, and provides pragmatic, forward‑thinking advice tailored to each family’s long‑term objectives.

Clients value Bonnie’s strategic approach, technical expertise and ability to explain complex issues clearly, enabling them to make informed decisions about succession and legacy planning.

Notable work highlights

Advising professional and lay Executors on the administration of a £40million estate which included multiple assets such as business property, agricultural property, Agricultural Holdings Act Tenancies, paintings qualifying for Conditional Exemption, a wine collection and AIM shareholdings. This estate required in depth advice across several legal disciplines including employment, litigation and property law.
Advising on the tax reliefs available on a Private Treaty sale of a high profile, multi-million pound painting with national importance which now hangs in a National Museum.
Working on behalf of a major mental health charitable trust corporation who acted as Trustee for multiple trusts for vulnerable beneficiaries with a collective value of over £4million.
Working closely with accountants to advise on the succession elements of a restructure of a multi-million pound company.

Accreditations & memberships

Trust and Estate Practitioner.
Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives.

Areas of expertise

Testimonials

What our clients say about Bonnie

“By way of thank you we wish to put into writing how pleased we are with the way you conducted the pre investigation and final preparation of our Wills. It had been ten years since writing our last Wills, a lot of changes have occurred in that time, as per our request you simplified and clarified our wishes to our total satisfaction. For this we are very grateful.”