ESTATE PLANNING

Estate planning when done well is a process designed to preserve, protect and pass on family wealth in a way that minimises your Inheritance Tax liability but it also has to suit the decisions you want to make in life and preserve your own standard of living.

Estate planning can and perhaps should be thought of as lifetime planning, as it isn’t a one-off event that you do once and then forget about. It’s better to view it as a process that takes account of where you are in your life, your wishes, expectations and opinions and the relationships in your life with your partner, children, family, friends and where they are in their lives too.

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It is seeking the most tax efficient ways of managing, organising or giving away your assets in your lifetime not just to reduce Inheritance Tax but to reduce the liability to Capital Gains Tax, Stamp Duty Land Tax or Income Tax. Transferring an asset to save potential Inheritance Tax in the very long term is all well and good but not if you incur a massive bill for Capital Gains Tax in the present.   

Another important factor is to organise your estate to minimise the legal and administration costs of dealing with your estate after death.

This means considering the practicalities of having funds available for your representatives to pay be able to pay Inheritance Tax to HMRC, so they can release your assets to your chosen beneficiaries. It also means making arrangements that can make it as smooth a process as possible for those you leave behind. It means making sure your nearest and dearest that you leave behind don’t go through unnecessary hardship whilst waiting for your estate to go through probate.