Estate and Tax Planning
Planning For the Future
Estate and Tax Planning
There are many areas of estate and tax planning with which our specialist lawyers can help you and the six main areas in which advice is most commonly sought are:
Asset Protection
You may wish to protect your assets against possible future residential or nursing home fees, or indeed against your own possible future actions.
The law relating to protection of assets is complex. It often involves consideration of a wide range of other areas of law and of practical issues. Our specialist solicitors can guide you through these complexities and advise you on any steps you can sensibly take to protect your assets.
In addition, we find that a number of people wish to ensure that their assets eventually pass to their children and want to protect against the possibility of being persuaded in later years to give away assets to a new found "friend”. We can advise you on the best way to achieve this.
Succession Issues - Transfer of your Farm or other Business to the next Generation
This is an issue which is very often of particular concern to our farming and business clients. It involves detailed consideration of a wide range of tax, family, business and practical issues. Our specialist solicitors at Borneos can help you through this process.
Tax Planning
Tax planning is sometimes thought of as just saving inheritance tax (IHT) but you may have an opportunity to mitigate the impact of other taxes.
IHT laws allow for assets to be given as gifts (within certain parameters which frequently vary) either direct to individuals or into trusts. After a detailed review of your aims and your financial and family circumstances, we can advise you on the best way to save as much tax as possible.
Insurance and Pensions
One method of saving IHT which can often be used is the writing into trust of the death benefits under certain insurance or pension policies. If you have these policies we will be happy to advise you on whether this is possible and the best way for you to proceed. We may also advise you to take out a new life or pension policy in conjunction with tax saving measures.
We are not able to advise you on insurance products but we would be happy to work with your existing advisors.
Equity Release
As part of your estate planning you may wish to consider methods of converting some of the value of your home into cash which you can spend or give away to family members.
A wide range of factors needs to be considered before deciding whether equity release is right for you and if so, which method is best for your circumstances. We can advise you on these issues and on the complex legal documentation and conveyancing process that applies to these schemes.
Wills
If the combined assets of you and your spouse (or registered civil partner) exceed the IHT threshold, you can make substantial tax savings by including appropriate provisions in your will. Our specialist solicitors can help you with this.
If you would like to discuss how we might help you, please:
-
call any of our office numbers listed at the bottom of this page;
-
contact one of our specialists direct by clicking on their name below; or
-
complete our enquiry form
Members of our team specialising in this area:
