Planning for IHT - Daily Express
A journalist at Express.co.uk is writing a piece detailing the things people need to know (and do) when planning their estate. Got any thoughts? Send them across. Deadline is tight so no need for an essay!
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Whilst Inheritance Tax is a concern to most of our clients, I often find that many people worry unnecessarily as they don't realise that most married couples can leave an estate of up to a million without any IHT being payable.
So the first step is to check whether or not you have an IHT problem in the first place.
Then, if you do have an IHT liability, assess your own needs before worrying too much. If you plan to spend a large part of your capital during your lifetime you might not have an IHT liability by the time you die and you certainly want to be cautious on gifting too much too early.
For those with a genuine IHT problem they are three key areas of plannings:
1) Gifting excess capital and income to your beneficiaries to reduce your estate
2) Holding IHT exempt assets such as pensions, private trading companies, and specialist Business Relief investments, and
3) Insuring against the liability.
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"Before thinking about mitigating IHT, the first step is to make sure you have enough money for your own needs for the rest of your life. Once you are sure that is the case, the easiest way to avoid IHT is to gift all your assets away. If that is too drastic a step there are other tools you can use such as Life Insurance policies, trusts and Business Property Relief. The key is that the planning should not be generic and should be specific to your needs."