Most families dealing with a death assume that if there's no Inheritance Tax to pay, there's nothing much to file. For estates worth roughly £325,000 to £1 million, that assumption has been broadly true since the excepted estate rules changed in January 2022 — many...
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TLDR: Your Pension Nomination Form Sits Outside Your Will
Here's something a lot of people don't know: your Will doesn't decide who gets your pension. Most pensions are discretionary trusts, and the trustees decide who receives the death benefit when you die, guided by a separate document called an expression of wish, or...
The One Page That Sits Outside Your Will: Your Pension Nomination Form
Most people assume their Will covers everything they own. It doesn't. There's one page, tucked away in a pension file somewhere, that decides who gets one of the biggest assets many of us will ever hold — and it sits completely outside your Will. It's called the...
TLDR: The Excepted-Estates Trap in Inheritance Tax Reporting
HMRC has started sending agents an educational letter about the "excepted estate" shortcut for probate — the route that lets many non-taxpaying estates skip a full Inheritance Tax account (IHT400). The letters target applications filed at or near £325,000, £500,000,...
Best Estate Planning Mistakes to Avoid in the UK
A successful property portfolio, a growing company or a carefully built investment pot can take decades to create. Yet the best estate planning mistakes to avoid are often made not through recklessness, but through delay, assumptions and documents that no longer...
Can Trusts Protect Property From Care Fees?
For many homeowners, the question is not simply whether they may need care. It is whether the home and wealth they have spent decades building could be used to fund it. Can trusts protect property from care fees? In some circumstances, they can provide valuable...
The Bookshelf: Family Wealth by James E. Hughes Jr — Why Families Lose It in Three Generations
Most books written for business owners are about growth. This one is about what happens after growth — and it is the only book on this shelf that is genuinely about the same problem we deal with every day. James E. Hughes Jr, an American estate lawyer of the old...
TLDR: Family Wealth by James E. Hughes Jr
Family Wealth: Keeping It in the Family by James E. Hughes Jr — the classic on why families lose money across generations, and what actually prevents it. Shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations is a pattern, not a superstition. Hughes argues the cause is...
TLDR: Pensions Come Into Inheritance Tax From April 2027
From 6 April 2027, unused pension funds and most death benefits will count towards the value of your estate for Inheritance Tax, with pension scheme administrators working alongside your personal representatives to settle the tax due. Income tax treatment on death...
Free Estate Planning Guide
Learning how to protect your assets can feel like an overwhelming topic. Our FREE Estate Planning Guide will help you to understand the process and how to get started.