Legacy planning
The ultimate in sustainable property tax planning..
The goal of family legacy planning is a net-zero tax transition of your assets to the next generation of your family, simply by using rules and regulations contained in UK legislation
Legacy planning is relevant to those of us who want to pass on to our children, and to our grandchildren, the assets we have worked for in our lifetimes
Part of that planning is to reduce your families’ exposure to Inheritance Tax, but that’s only part of it..
We are talking about you, as custodian of your family’s assets, during your lifetime
Legacy planning is about creating a succession plan to aim to pass your assets, likely your business and real-estate, intact to your children and grandchildren
It’s about creating a strategy for family members to follow. With time, the strategy becomes a duty imposed upon successive generations and provides confidence that family wealth will endure. United in purpose, bonded in perpetuity
It’s not about thinking ‘what’s in it for me?’ It’s entirely about ‘how do I achieve this for my family?’
It all starts with your Will, which is the document by which you state what you want to happen to your assets when you die
You could aim to pass assets directly to, say, your son and daughter but, at best, that just kicks the can down the road, and they’re left with solving the same problem in future
Then there are tax issues to consider. Ah, those pesky tax rules!
A better solution may be to create a trust, and have your children as beneficiaries
It’s not new, it’s what the great aristocratic families have been doing for centuries, and all of the good bits of that planning can be applied to you and your family. The numbers might be smaller, but most everything else is the same
Some assets lend themselves better to this process than others, and businesses and real-estate are perhaps the best categories of all
Your legacy will be achieved by planning those assets in a tax-efficient way, so that they survive you, for the benefit of your family
– Ian Dury
Proper legacy planning may provide palatable answers to the 3 questions you’re likely already asking yourself:
- Yes, creating a ‘relevant property trust’ allows you to keep control. The trust deed sets out exactly what the trustees can and cannot do, so you lose ownership, but not control
- No, there should be no Capital Gains Tax (CGT) to pay at the time of transfer on chargeable assets, as 'rollover-relief' means that the trustees take over the property at its original cost. CGT is deferred until the property is sold, and that day may never come
- Yes, use of trust planning can be very effective if family members gets divorced in future
Where there are significant potential capital gains in your property portfolio then it’s almost a no-brainer, as the capital gains may be ignored
Take control of your life or life will take control of you. Doing nothing is the worst strategy of all and, likely, benefits HMRC most
If you’re paying more than lip-service to ‘my family is my priority’ then it’s straightforward to create a family legacy, by way of a trust
The best way to predict your future, is to create it
Don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows..
– Bob Dylan
Trusts have been around since the time of the Crusades and both the tax authority and the tax profession knows them well. A track record of almost 750 years and still effective today
Creating and implementing the right kind of trust, with all the rules and regulations met, and tailored to the exact circumstances of your family, requires experienced experts..
Love is in the heir..
Done properly, you create it, with your rules, to pass your legacy and your lifetime’s work, to future generations of your family
A well thought out and executed legacy plan can have a tremendous influence on family harmony
..and the forests will echo with laughter.. Jimmy Page & Robert Plant
Planning your living legacy will take work and effort on your part, but if you know the process, starting with the end in mind, then you can reverse engineer the exact steps to produce the perfect inter-generational plan for your family, with everything in one place
Legacy planning is the best gift you can give your family
Testimonials
- “Having been a client for around 20 years, they have assisted us many times, always putting our interests first. They have always acted with honesty and integrity. With a wide network of professionals an answer is always found to whatever problem has been presented to them.”
- Richard Mancey
- Managing Director, Paultons Park Ltd
- “Acted for me since 1998. Great ability to look at the bigger picture and always with my interests uppermost. Well connected and typically brings other professionals in to the advice process”
- Patrick Trant
- Chairman, Trant Engineering Ltd
- “I have been a client for more than 10 years throughout which time I have found them to be professional and competent, operating as part of a team with a wide knowledge of tax and related planning. They put my interests first and are particularly good at explaining technical subject matter in a straightforward way”
- Anthony Mowatt
- Chairman, Keystone Legal Ltd a Sunday Times Top 100 Track company
- “In almost twenty years of working for us they have acted with honesty and integrity as one of our trusted advisers. We are always treated as important and nothing is too much trouble”
- John Reilly
- Managing Director, John Reilly (Civil Engineering) Ltd
- “Worked for me for more than 15 years on a variety of projects, large and small. They are particularly adept at using applied knowledge and expertise to work with their network of professionals to deliver my goals. I have found them very easy to work with and happily recommend them to others”
- John Clark
- Managing Director, T Clark & Son Ltd
