Preparing for your future and making these important decisions now is the best way to make things easier on your loved ones when they’ll need it most.
We have a dedicated team who specialise in finding a plan that meets your needs enabling you to protect your family and assets and providing you with complete peace of mind.
Only 35% of the UK population has a Will. Without a Will, your assets will pass in accordance with the Rules of Intestacy which is unlikely to distribute your assets how you wish. A Will is important for everyone who owns assets but also where you have a business, have children aged under 18, wish to protect family wealth or have children from a previous marriage or relationship.
We can prepare a new Will or review your existing Will to ensure that your assets pass to your chosen beneficiaries in the way you would wish and with the protection you choose. We can also consider your Will as part of a wider Inheritance Tax planning exercise. This can be coupled with any of our other services such as Lasting Powers of Attorney and Inheritance Tax planning or as a stand-alone service.
Introduced by the Mental Capacity Act 2005, these important documents allow you to choose who can manage your financial and health affairs if you are unable to do so. Should you lose mental capacity without a LPA in place, access to your money will be severely restricted and decisions on your health may be made by others not of your choosing. This can impact on your quality of life and your care.
We can manage the process of implementing LPAs, providing advice on your choice of Attorneys and guidance to be included, as well as acting as the Certificate Provider where relevant and managing the process of registering the LPAs with the Office of the Public Guardian.
As with Wills, LPAs can be dealt with in isolation or as part of a wider exercise to include Wills and Inheritance Tax planning.
Being aware of your Inheritance Tax exposure is vital to ensure that planning is carried out in order to minimise the Inheritance Tax (IHT) liability payable on your death. With the Government freezing the IHT free threshold at £325,000 until at least 2026, coupled with the increase in property values, more and more people will are falling into the IHT net.
We can review your IHT position and advise on ways to mitigate this liability during your lifetime. This advice can take many forms and the ideas we can implement for you will be defined by your assets and your wishes. As such, our IHT planning service will be bespoke and tailored to your situation but can include advice on gifting assets and the use of all available exemptions and reliefs etc.
Trusts form a very valuable part of Inheritance Tax planning both for the tax effective gifting a protection of assets during your lifetime and also within your Will to protect assets following your death.
Within an IHT planning exercise, we can also deal with your Wills and Lasting Powers of Attorney.
Valuable reliefs can be available if you have a business or agricultural property. However, with diversification in both business and farming, reliefs can be reduced or lost which can increase the Inheritance Tax liability on your death.
We can advise on passing your business or agricultural assets to the next generation as well as ensuring these assets can benefit from the reliefs available both during your lifetime and on your death.
We can also advise on your wider Inheritance Tax position as well as preparing Wills and Lasting Powers of Attorney.
If you require help or advise on any of the services above then please get in touch.
