Tax
Inheritance tax, trusts and estate planning
To reduce your exposure to inheritance tax, a little simple planning can enable you and your loved ones to enjoy the rewards of your success.
Ensure peace of mind and hassle-free tax when it comes to your money, by building trustworthy long-term relationships with our teams and receiving realistic and practical advice tailored to your needs.
Understanding you
Our tax advisers’ and financial planners’ knowledge and expertise enables us to provide a holistic approach to your inheritance tax planning, recommending how best to minimise the impact of inheritance tax on your estate, whilst ensuring you are suitably provided for.
Our approach puts you at the heart, taking account of your objectives, family and business structures, to ensure your wealth and assets are passed on to the next generation in the way you want.
Whatever your circumstances and personal concerns, whether you have a larger estate which requires more complex planning, or you are a business owner considering your future plans, you will receive a comprehensive, personal service, communicated in an easy to understand manner, with as much or as little detail as you like.
How can we help you?
To help mitigate or plan for inheritance tax, there are several options available, which include:
- Trusts
- Investment structures
- Gifts
- Wills
- Life assurance
- Utilising reliefs and allowances
For most clients, a combination of these will be most appropriate.
Much of our inheritance tax planning includes flexibility to allow you to alter your plans, as our circumstances often change as we get older and legislation is subject to review, meaning it is important we continually evaluate the plans.
Trusts
Trusts are not just for the wealthy, but can simply be a useful way of planning ahead. Whether you are supporting children through education, planning your retirement or wanting to pass on assets, a trust may be beneficial.
We can advise on the benefits of creating a Trust, and whether it is the right option, looking at your capital gains tax, inheritance tax and income tax position.
Our advice can optimise the tax position for new and existing Trusts. We can deal with annual compliance requirements as well as preparing regular ‘tax efficiency reviews’ and we can prepare the Trust’s accounts and calculate any tax liability.
We can also advise beneficiaries on the tax implications of receiving money or assets from a Trust.
Client story
Background: We act for a family with a family investment company, personal investments and property. The size of the estate meant that they did not qualify for certain allowances and the children faced a significant inheritance tax liability. The family wanted to minimise their exposure as far as possible, whilst ensuring the parents had sufficient income to maintain their standard of living.
How we helped: Our planning was implemented to ensure that the parents had enough income and the inheritance tax would be minimised when the time came. Our financial planning helped the family prepare for the future and secured their ability to claim further allowances, whilst retaining much of their capital in their name. We also ensured tax-efficient wills were drafted, working closely with the family solicitor.
