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Inheritance Tax Planning
Leaving an estate right up until death will mean in about 50% of cases that probate will have to be completed and in a lot of cases a 40% Inheritance Tax bill costing you possibly tens of thousands of pounds.
Is there a legal way to beat the system?
Protecting your assets early with a living trust may be the answer.
Need help with Inheritance Tax?
Our friendly specialists are here to help you and can offer information and a free, no-obligation quote over the phone.
PROTECTING YOUR ASSETS NOW WITH A LIVING TRUST
Trusts and inheritance tax planning
Inheritance tax law, and inheritance tax reliefs and exemptions can be complex. Even more so if you own a business or have assets in the UK and overseas. Specialist advice is the backbone of an effective plan to minimise the inheritance tax (IHT) that will have to be paid on your estate in a compliant manner. Our specialists can provide you with up-to-the-minute, in-depth inheritance tax advice and strategy to ensure your loved ones benefit as much as possible from your wealth and property when the time comes.
Trusts are used to protect family wealth for future generations, reducing the inter-generational cascade of inheritance tax and ensuring bloodline protection for your estate from outside claims.
Our multi-disciplinary team of specialists has combined experience across all aspects of tax, estate, and succession planning from Wills, trusts, and probate to private wealth property.
Business succession planning
If you own your own business, you should take expert advice to ensure that it passes to the next generation without incurring unnecessary tax charges. Business relief from inheritance tax is a valuable relief which can reduce the taxable value of an asset to nil. It is, however, essential to arrange your affairs in such a way so as to ensure this important relief is used to its maximum advantage.
We are experienced in helping business owners to structure their affairs in a tax efficient manner. Our Business Succession Plan consists of Wills and associated documents designed to maximise the benefit of business relief from inheritance tax, ensuring the inheritance tax payable on an estate, which includes business property, is minimised to the greatest possible extent.
We can also call on colleagues in other departments to provide expertise where partnership or shareholder agreements need to be revised as a result of your succession planning.
Specialist Wills and trusts for succession and tax planning
Our team of specialists are experienced in using Wills and trusts for complex inheritance planning and tax mitigation. We often advise on the following types of Wills:
Asset Protection Wills ensure your beneficiaries receive the maximum benefit from the family estate by protecting it against claims from third parties.
Next-Generation Protection Wills are for married couples, or civil partners, with children. They are designed to protect the child’s inheritance against third-party claims such as taxation, divorce, or bankruptcy.
Family Protection Wills combine our Next Generation and Asset Protection Wills to protect assets for each generation.
Second Marriage Wills ensure children from previous relationships (following divorce or bereavement) can inherit certain assets and couples can maximise the IHT exemption that is available to them.
Exempt Assets Inheritance Tax Plan refers to a pair of Wills, with trust provisions, that allow you to take full advantage of IHT reliefs on some business and/or agricultural assets. This type of will can also include incorporate elements of our Asset Protection, Next Generation, and Family Protection Wills if required.
Property Fragmentation Wills place part of a property into a trust to save inheritance tax in the future. Aspects of our Asset Protection, Next Generation, and Family Protection Wills can also be incorporated.
Foreign property Wills are for owners of property overseas.
Charitable giving can be structured to take maximise IHT exemptions.
Using a trust to pass on assets before you die.
Lifetime Estate Planning
You may wish to use trusts as part of your lifetime estate planning. For instance:
To pass money to children or grandchildren so it is not taxed on your death. Placing this money into a trust ensures that funds can be protected until those children reach an age where they can manage the funds responsibly.
To help children onto the property ladder.
To provide for vulnerable or disabled family members.
To create a charity in your name which lives on to promote and support the causes close to your heart.
Professional trustees
Our own company, Probate Specialist Limited can act as trustee of your trust, whether on its own or jointly with other individuals. This extends and supports the personal and trusted relationship we seek to develop with all our clients.
