In an increasingly complex world, good planning remains key to ensuring your assets are protected, both for your use and to pass down to your family.
Wills A well thought-out will is a fundamental requirement for any estate planning exercise. As well as ensuring your estate goes to the right people, a properly drafted will can also reduce the tax burden on your estate.
Lifetime Gifts and Trusts Lifetime giving can be a tax efficient way of ensuring your estate is passed down to your family. This can be done in a relatively small way, over a period of time, so that the benefit builds up over time and typically using a number of the lifetime tax exemptions available.
For other clients more substantial assets will be involved, particularly where businesses or agricultural interests exist. Care needs to be exercised to ensure that no inadvertent capital tax liability is created. Trusts can often be used to defer the capital gains tax charge without incurring any inheritance tax. Care has to be taken to ensure valuable reliefs are not accidentally lost.
Life Insurance and Pension Policy Trusts Life policies and pension funds can represent very significant assets. It is usually advisable to make separate provision for them as they need to be dealt with separately from your will.
Deeds of Variation and Deathbed Planning We may be able to assist where planning has been left to the last minute, or even when a person has passed away. We might be able to reduce the tax burden by creating a Deed of Variation to restructure part of the Will.
Capital taxation issues can have an effect on income and other tax related affairs. A thorough grasp of all the related issues is needed to deliver the right outcome.
We work with a wide range of professionals, including accountants and financial advisers, to ensure that you receive the best possible advice.
David Sprake
