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Helping you to understand:
Estate planning is not just for the wealthy. Largely due to the enhanced value of homes in the UK, it is predicted that £400 billion will be passed from grandparents to the next generation over the next 10 years, the majority of which will be above the inheritance tax threshold.
Your Fairstone financial planner will work with you to estimate your potential inheritance tax obligations and provide you with tailored advice on how to manage these requirements.
Inheritance tax (IHT) is a tax on any part of your estate that exceeds your personal allowance when you die. Anything left to either your spouse or civil partner will be exempt from inheritance tax, regardless of whether the value exceeds this threshold.
IHT is usually charged at 40% and the executors of your estate must pay your inheritance tax bill within six months of your death.
Until the inheritance tax bill is paid, probate will not be granted and your assets can’t be distributed in line with your will.
Proper planning can help put you in the most tax efficient position. Your Fairstone financial planner will go through all pension allowances, business property relief and trust options with you to make sure you’re utilising everything available.
To support your beneficiaries in paying future inheritance tax liabilities, you could take out a life insurance policy to cover the anticipated bill. An insurance policy that will pay out a lump sum on your death could act as a means of settling the bill quickly and easily.
It is important to remember to set up any such policy in trust. This ensures the pay-out can go directly to your beneficiaries. If you don’t utilise a trust, the money will form part of your estate and your loved ones won’t be able to access it until the inheritance tax bill has been paid.
You don’t need to wait until after you have gone to share your wealth with your loved ones. You may want to help parents with their long-term care costs, support a child with a deposit for their first home or pay the education fees for a grandchild.
While HMRC has put rules in place to prevent people from avoiding an inheritance tax bill by simply giving away all of their money on their deathbed, individuals are entitled to give away £3,000 of capital in total, each tax year, free from inheritance tax.
This annual gift allowance can be backdated by one year, so where the full £3,000 is not used, it can be carried forward to the next tax year. This means that a married couple could give away a total of £6,000 a year to their children without incurring inheritance tax (or £12,000 if the previous year’s allowances were unused).
Did you know that if you have assets of more than £23,250 (in England and Northern Ireland), £30,000 (Wales) and £26,250 (Scotland) you would not be entitled to financial assistance from your local authority towards your care fees?
Latest figures reveal that the average weekly cost of a room in a residential home in the UK is £704, and a room in a nursing home cost £888. (*Source: www.carehome.co.uk, September 2021)
As we continue to live longer, the cost of long-term care is something we should all be thinking about. Professional financial advice can help you make provisions for your care costs in later life.
A trust is a way to make sure your assets are given to your loved ones in a timely manner, without incurring an inheritance tax bill. One benefit of using a trust is that it can be set up exactly to your own wishes and they can be tax efficient.
Trusts can be very complex and we recommend speaking to your Fairstone financial planner when considering this route.
There may come a time when you are not physically or mentally able to make decisions regarding your finances or welfare. To protect you in this situation, you can entrust someone to manage your affairs for you if the need arises. This is called a lasting power of attorney.
If you lose the mental capacity to make your own decisions without a power of attorney in place, an application will need to be made to the court for someone to be designated to act on your behalf. This can be time consuming and expensive, but most importantly, you would have no control over who would be making your decisions. Your wealth manager can support you in putting your plans in place.
We have over 1200 local advisers and staff specialising in investment advice all the way through to retirement planning.
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