Estate Planning

Earlier than most people think. Estate planning is not just about what happens on death, many of the most effective steps, such as gifting, take seven years to work fully, so time is your biggest asset. It’s also worth revisiting your plan whenever life changes: marriage or divorce, children or grandchildren, selling a business, buying property, or moving abroad. A good rule of thumb is to review your plan every three to five years, or sooner if the tax rules change.

Yes. Without one, the intestacy rules decide who inherits, and that often isn’t what you would have chosen, unmarried partners, for example, receive nothing. A will lets you choose your beneficiaries, appoint guardians for children and executors you trust, and structure gifts tax-efficiently. It’s also the way you make sure both spouses’ allowances, including the £175,000 residence nil-rate band, are properly used. We’d always suggest putting a Lasting Power of Attorney in place at the same time, so someone you trust can act for you if you lose capacity. We can assist with both Will’s and LPA’s and help you work through the key considerations.

If you give something away outright and live for seven years, it falls out of your estate completely, these are known as potentially exempt transfers. If you die within seven years, the gift is brought back into the calculation. Where the gift exceeds your nil-rate band and you die between three and seven years after making it, taper relief reduces the tax on the gift on a sliding scale. Two important points: taper relief reduces the tax, not the value of the gift, and the rule only works if you genuinely give the asset away – continuing to benefit from it (for example, gifting a house but still living in it) means it stays in your estate.

Trusts can be very useful, but they aren’t right for everyone. Their main attraction is control: you can move value out of your estate without handing assets directly to someone who may be too young, or whose circumstances might change. They’re often used for minor children, vulnerable beneficiaries or to protect family wealth on divorce. The trade-off is complexity and cost – gifts into a discretionary trust above the nil-rate band trigger an immediate 20% charge, and trusts face ten-yearly and exit charges plus their own reporting. For many families a family investment company now does a similar job more simply, so it’s worth comparing the two.

It’s an informal conversation, with no obligation. We’ll talk through your family circumstances, your assets, property, investments, pensions, business interests and what you want to achieve, including how much you need to keep for your own security. We’ll then give you an idea of your likely Inheritance Tax exposure and the options worth exploring, and set out clearly what any next steps would cost. It’s helpful to have a rough list of your assets and a copy of any existing will.