June 30, 2025
Estate planning encompasses more than just your finances. Whether or not you are concerned that your estate may attract inheritance tax (IHT) after your death, deciding what you want to happen to your wealth can carry a significant mental load.
There are likely to be several important decisions to be made about your legacy, including;
For many people, merely devoting head space to the idea of what happens after their death is a challenge, and it’s doubly difficult if you or your loved ones are reluctant to discuss your wishes.
Meanwhile, the complexities of the process; identifying and organising your assets, considering options for mitigating IHT liabilities, drafting wills, and ensuring all your beneficiaries are accounted for, may combine to ensure that your estate planning gets relegated to the ‘I’ll sort it out later’ pile.
But what if ‘later’ comes around sooner than expected? Lack of attention to estate planning can result in unexpected expenditure, as well as loved ones having to make difficult decisions during emotionally vulnerable times. In the worst-case scenario, dying intestate (without leaving a valid will) can mean that your wealth doesn’t benefit the people that you would have chosen.
There’s also the question of what happens during your lifetime if you lose capacity to make your own financial decisions, through illness or accident.
How do you get started with estate planning?
If you’re one of those people for whom the sheer number of choices, coupled with the emotional weight of contemplating mortality, makes the prospect daunting, help is at hand in the shape of an experienced, empathetic Talis IFA.
Your IFA will guide you, step-by-step, through the process. They’ll help you to get a clear idea of your current financial position, and talk you through your options (in plain English), to clarify your aims for your legacy and give you confidence in your decisions.
We take the time to develop trusted relationships and, with many of our clients, that also includes successive generations of their family, so we can sometimes even smooth the path to some of those tricky conversations.
What can you expect when you talk to a Talis IFA about estate planning?
To help you to reduce the mental load, our approach is to break the process into manageable steps, following a clear, structured approach that helps you to make decisions with confidence. Everyone’s circumstances are personal to them, and there’s no one-size-fits-all blueprint for estate planning, so everything your Talis IFA recommends will be tailored to your needs, but usually covers the following steps:
We will begin by helping you to get a clear picture of the extent of your wealth – from property to cash to shares, pensions and other investments to personal possessions.
Then we’ll discuss what you want your wealth to achieve – both before and after your death. We’ll look at your options for lifetime giving (if you wish) as well as legacy, talk you through different ways to pass on your wealth, and clarify the IHT implications.
If you have an existing will, we’ll help you to assess whether it still meets your needs, and whether it disposes of your assets in the most tax-efficient way. We’ll look for opportunities to reduce your potential IHT liabilities, and help you to decide whether you need to write a new will.
If you’re married, or in a civil partnership, we’ll check that your arrangements are making the most of both partners’ tax allowances, and if your estate does exceed the IHT threshold, look with you at ways to minimise your estate during your lifetime.
If some IHT liability seems inevitable, we can also offer guidance on ways to fund it that won’t leave your beneficiaries with the problem of how to pay it after your death, leaving you with the peace of mind that they won’t have additional financial worries at an emotionally difficult time.
Although we can’t write your will for you (you’ll need to consult a solicitor for that), we can help you to structure your will in a tax-efficient way, so that you have this information prepared for when you instruct your solicitor.
However you decide to pass on your wealth – whether leaving everything to beneficiaries after your death, or including some lifetime giving to reduce the value of your estate – you will want to remain confident that you can afford to support your lifestyle and that you and your loved ones will be financially secure in case of the unexpected.
We’ll advise you on ways to ensure that the cost of care is covered, should you need it, and also discuss Powers of Attorney, so that someone you trust can make decisions about your finances if you become unable to do so.
Talis IFAs approach your estate planning from a ‘life first, money second’ perspective. That means that our recommendations are always focused on what you want your money to achieve, and on finding ways to make it work harder towards those aims.
We also remember (and frequently have to remind our clients) that it’s your wealth. While we want to help you to pass it on to the people that you most want to help; sometimes the answer to minimising a large potential tax bill is to spend more of it now!
This article does not constitute tax or legal advice and should not be relied upon as such. Tax treatment depends on the individual circumstances of each client and may be subject to change in the future. For guidance, seek professional advice. A pension is a long-term investment not normally accessible until age 55 (57 from April 2028 unless the plan has a protected pension age). The value of your investments (and any income from them) can go down as well as up, which would have an impact on the level of pension benefits available. Your pension income could also be affected by the interest rates at the time you take your benefits.
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