How we can help

Inheritance Tax (IHT)
and estate planning

When you’ve worked hard to accumulate wealth and achieve financial freedom, it’s natural to want to put the right plans and tax-saving strategies in place to leave as much of your estate as possible to future generations. We help you mitigate your tax liabilities to do just that.

Download our IHT and estate planning guide

Putting the right strategies in place

We have an enviable track record advising and assisting high-net-worth individuals like you to reduce the amount of IHT otherwise payable on their estate. As always, we take a holistic approach to your finances, which means considering all relevant IHT strategies and your own ongoing financial requirements.

Based on your personal circumstances, the strategies we are likely to consider will include:

  • Investing in tax-efficient share schemes or business ventures
  • Giving away assets in your lifetime
  • Taking out life insurance policies
  • Setting up trusts
  • Making gifts from your surplus income
  • Maximising the use of your annual tax-free allowances
  • Giving money to charity

Many clients find our Lifetime Wealth Model very helpful during this estate planning process. It helps you track your income flows and assess your overall capital position as you put plans in place for yourself and future generations.

Understanding IHT

IHT is paid if your estate (your property, money and possessions) is worth more than £325,000 when you die. Your estate will owe tax at 40% on anything above the £325,000 inheritance tax threshold (or 36% if you leave at least 10% of your net estate to a charity).

If you are married or in a civil partnership, you can pass your possessions and most of your assets to each other tax-free if you are UK-domiciled, although from April 2027, unspent pension pots will be brought into IHT (announced in the 2024 Autumn Budget). If one of you dies and their tax-free allowance is not used at that time, the surviving partner is allowed to use both tax-free allowances, which effectively doubles their combined nil-rate band to £650,000.

The RNIB was introduced in April 2017 as a tax-free allowance which can be added to an individual’s nil rate band of £325,000 where a main residence is left to a lineal descendant such as a child or grandchild, including adopted, step or fostered children.

The RNIB is currently £175,000, which could give you an overall allowance of £500,000 as an individual or £1m for you and your partner if you are married or in a civil partnership.

If your estate is worth over £2m, it gets more complicated. In this case, the RNIB reduces by £1 for every £2 of value over £2m and will be zero for individual estates over £2.35m. It’s worth noting that the value of your estate doesn’t affect your or your partner’s individual IHT allowances of £325,000.

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Guiding you to financial freedom

Our aim is to help you accumulate and plan your wealth to achieve financial freedom in life.
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