Estate Planning and Asset Protection

For most UK clients, the main aim of estate planning is to reduce the Inheritance Tax on their estate when they die. There is much more to it than this, though.

Business owners need to consider how they want to exit their businesses and how that event will be treated for tax purposes, whether  in their lifetime or on their death. If you are a sole trader or a partner in an unlimited liability partnership, how can you protect your private and family assets from claims made against you in a professional capacity, or from aggressive creditors if the business is in trouble? Should you be considering the use of trusts or family partnerships as a vehicle for holding business assets?

Families with children need to consider, if passing on substantial assets during lifetime, how these should be controlled for the long-term benefit of the family. Inheriting or receiving gifts of large sums of money can be destabilising for vulnerable young people. What you think of as treating your children “fairly” may not seem so to them. What if substantial gifts are made for tax planning purposes to married children who then suffer a divorce?

People with dependants who are disabled need to consider tax issues, like other families. But they also have to balance their natural wish to provide for family members, and to treat disabled and able-bodied dependents fairly, with the special needs of vulnerable people.

We have the expertise to work with you in developing, and keeping up to date, strategies that will not only protect your wealth but also provide the best long term solutions for you, your family and your business.