Inheritance Tax and Death Planning

This is best suited to single people with over £500,000 in wealth (total assets and pensions) or married couples with over £1,000,000 in wealth. These are the most likely thresholds for inheritance tax but there are exceptions to these rules, particularly if gifts have been made already out of the estate.

Inheritance tax is known as the 'voluntary tax' as in theory it is entirely avoidable. However, that is easier said than done these days with some properties alone taking people over the thresholds. It therefore needs much more thought on how, why and when it is to be avoided, without affecting your lifestyle.

This is particularly important to consider if you have pensions with a capital value, as from 6th April 2027, these will form part of your estate for inheritance tax purposes.

While inheritance tax is a main concern for many, very few people plan all the details for their deaths that your family can benefit from. We provide a free pack on request with any free initial consultation, outlining everything you should consider preparing before your death.

Cash Flow Planning and Forecasting

We use cash flow planning software throughout which allows us to input incomes, expenditures assets and goal, so you can easily see projections based on a variety of circumstances and understand how the changes we make, can improve your ability to achieve those goals.

This is particularly important if you have specific financial targets or goals, such as retirement, as it can show what we then need to accomplish to get there.

Savings, Tax and Investment Planning

This is best suited to those with spare capital within or regularly going into the bank from surplus income. Your money is earning basic interest rates and losing out to inflation each year and so you are looking for an alternative that has the potential to beat inflation. You may also have existing investments that either you don't understand or you are unhappy with.

Investing is easy to get wrong and there is bad and unregulated advice out there on the internet. Financial advisers are the approved route for advice on this and the Financial Conduct Authority signs us off to give investment advice to people. We do this based on strict and sensible guidelines, to make sure you have the potential to increase your returns but with some 'risk' related controls and healthy diversification to add some protection where possible.

When investing, we want our returns to be good but we also want to understand the tax implications of doing this and, if possible, pay no tax to do this. Better yet, there are some investments that even return you tax if you invest into them, so finding the best ones that make sense for you is important.

Your Financial Journey and the Big Picture

Financial planning is a journey and our clients (perhaps you) join us at a variety of places along the way. Each part of that journey has different questions, needs and problems to overcome. At each stage, if planned properly, it can make those steps much easier and the sooner we take that step back to look at the big picture, the better.

Kids and Grandkids 0 - 18

This is typically managed and funded by parents & grandparents. With house and car prices accelerating, understanding how to invest and grow capital for first house deposits, driving lessons or a first car is important. That way, the money being saved is beating inflationary pressures and giving them the best start in life.

Early Working Life 18 - 40

This is where the hard work is. Focusing on career and perhaps upgrading the home takes priority as families grow. Making sure to set some money aside or taking advantage of some of the useful tax benefits is beneficial; while ensuring your life assurance is up to date is crucial. More people are moving jobs and keeping track of the more basic workplace pensions we leave behind and perhaps upgrading them, becomes important. This stops us from losing track of these or getting lumped with poor pension growth, that then affects our retirement lifestyle.

Tax, Investments and Retirement Planning 40 - 70

This is where most of our clients find us. Hopefully you are sitting a bit higher up the work ladder or at least comfortable in a career by this point but it's not an essential. This might mean you are earning more, so have more need to reduce the tax you pay or have spare capital to invest for the future. It is however usually sometime in this period that we start thinking about what retirement might look like and it's different for everybody.

There are hundreds of different pensions out there and each is different. Hence why a qualified adviser like us is usually needed to review these. We ask the question. 'What does this pension give you at retirement and does this suit what you want to do?'. To understand that we define several things:

• What does retirement need to look like for you, when you either leave work or reduce your hours? Understanding expenses, plans, goals and incorporating the passing of any of your wealth after your death. This allows us to build the picture of where we need you to be, financially.

• How does my pension/s work? We need to review each of your pensions for the quality of what it offers, the growth historically and the investment potential before retirement and whether what is offered makes sense with what you need it to do.

• Can I improve my retirement? It might be you want a certain lifestyle in retirement or just want to maximise the options you have when you get there. So, how much and when to contribute to these goals is something we need to consider. Cash flow planning software lets us show you the projected impact of doing so. Allowing you to make those best decisions.

Estate and Inheritance Tax Planning 70 - Death

No one plans on dying but you can plan for your loved ones, so the financial impact and burden is limited. We may have experienced ourselves how difficult funeral planning and administering an estate is and how much easier this may have been had we had some guidance. Understanding what we can prepare for your family and how we can prepare them, is an easy weight to lift from our minds.

With inheritance tax at a potential 40% on your assets and property prices rising, many more families are now risking the loss of large portions of their wealth by not planning for this. The planning of which can be very simple if you understand the rules behind it and the pitfalls that many people fall into, without seeking professional advice.