Leaders List interview: 60 seconds with Nicola Bruce, Appleby

Date: 01 May 2024

Ashleigh John

This week’s 60-second piece is dedicated to Nicola Bruce, Partner at Appleby.

Tell Citywealth readers a bit about your role.

I am a Partner in the Private Client and Trusts department at Appleby, in their Bermuda office. I joined Appleby earlier this year, after many years working with different kinds of onshore and offshore trusts. 

What does a typical day look like for you?

There is no typical day! Thankfully, the work is very varied. One day I might be helping to drive forwards new trust law reform initiatives with the Bermuda government through the Trust Law Reform Committee, getting my teeth stuck into tough technical issues and considering proposed legislative changes, the next I could be working on an employee benefit trust, preparing an application to court to amend a family trust, or working on a large trust re-structuring exercise.

Tell us about some recent, interesting client instructions you have received.

I have been advising in relation to the new corporate income tax being introduced in Bermuda, which is pretty interesting from the trusts perspective, as the legislation does include trusts within the definition of ‘entities’, which are potentially in scope of the tax, though few, if any, entities in Bermuda-based private trust structures will be within scope of this tax because of the scoping provisions; these (among other things) only apply the new tax to entities in certain international groups which in some years earn over 750 m Euro of annual revenue – good news for the Bermuda trusts industry, which can in almost all cases still offer tax-neutral planning opportunities.

What challenges do your clients face and how are you helping your clients to overcome them?

Clients struggle with the constant changes faced by their families – wars affecting investments, family members wishing to break away from the fold and forge out on their own, disputes arising, tax laws suddenly changing – these issues have affected wealthy families throughout time – but I would say that the main difference today is how very international families are becoming, and how many jurisdictions, consequently, those families have exposure to from a tax, legal and investment perspective – which makes things more complicated (and interesting) than ever. 

It’s good to be able to help families navigate those challenges. At the moment a lot of international families with a presence in the UK are worried about the non-dom reforms and the general election. How to overcome the challenges facing any family at any point in time will always be completely specific to that family – there’s rarely a one-size fits all solution. It’s important to consider advice from different jurisdictions, and stress-test proposed solutions against different future fact-patterns. 

What is your proudest professional achievement?

I was honoured to act as a director of a very large private trust company through a particularly challenging time for the family in question. After years advising trustees, it was invaluable getting to sit on the decision-making side of the table, and I was proud of what we as trustees achieved for the family.

What do you consider to be the most important attributes for a leader?

The ability to listen, to consider different perspectives, to think outside the box and to be flexible. 

Who do you most admire and why?

I admire the women in the profession at a senior level when I started out. It’s still not always easy juggling home life with a busy practice, but firms like Appleby have taken big strides towards making life more manageable for working parents with the introduction of flexible working and other initiatives. I take my hat off to the women and parents who blazed the trail as law firm partners in earlier times.

Where was the last place you travelled to for work or pleasure?

I took my six-year-old son to Lapland right before Christmas. We went on reindeer and husky dog rides in the snowy woods, saw Arctic hares bounding through the snow and met Elves in Santa Claus Village. The highlight was Santa Claus coming to our hut in the woods. My son asked him for a live turtle for Christmas…

If you weren’t in this industry, what else might you be doing?

Before deciding on a career in law, I wanted to be a physicist, and I still really enjoy reading about the subject. I like difficult concepts and using logic to overcome challenging problems. I ended up heading to Cambridge University to study law, where I was lucky enough to frequently eat in the same hall as the legendary Stephen Hawking. I think a lot of the methodological and analytical skills which I loved in science come in handy in a technical area such as trusts law. I’m a geek at heart and I genuinely enjoy the complexity of the law and the scope, sometimes, to be creative with it.

How do you relax after a long day?

I have a boisterous, joyous six-year-old boy – so not much relaxing goes on…

You can view Nicola’s profile on the Leaders List here.