Property and Inheritance Tax Protection

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PROPERTY & INHERITANCE PROTECTION

Ensuring that children and other rightful beneficiaries will inherit the wealth you have created, regardless of what the future may hold, is important. So is making sure that the value of the family home is protected from hostile creditors or unnecessary Inheritance Tax.

But without professional guidance, much of your hard-earned money might end up in the wrong hands or be lost completely! If you should need Long Term Residential or Nursing Care, and your assets exceed £19,000, the NHS and Community Care Act 1990 allows for your home to be used by the Local Authority to meet the costs of providing that Care.

By changing the legal basis under which you own your home, this valuable asset can be preserved and passed intact to your Heirs. Similar measures can also protect Equities and other assets from your personal or commercial Creditors and ensure that your children or other beneficiaries inherit as you had planned.

Likewise, if you have assets, including the value of the family home, worth more than £250,000, your children and other rightful beneficiaries could face an avoidable Inheritance Tax bill of up to £100,000.

If you should die without a well prepared Will, no tax saving is possible. What is more, your possessions would be distributed according to strict legal rules, which could cause considerable difficulty for those closest to you.

For instance, if you are married and have children, your husband or wife would only inherit the first £ 125,000 of your Estate. Remote relatives might have a share at the expense of your direct dependants and Unmarried Partners could end up with nothing at all!

If you have children under 18, it is essential that you formally appoint responsible Guardians. What is more, unmarried Fathers have no automatic legal right to look after their own children in the event of the mother's death!

The Law Society recommends that Enduring Powers of Attorney are drawn up when making a Will. These powerful documents provide a lifeline if, through sickness or accident, you cannot handle your own financial affairs.

All these issues can be addressed by proper planning. Whatever your marital status, if you own property and have assets, including the value of the family home, worth more than £250,000, then we recommend that you talk an independent financial adviser about Property and Inheitance. It ringfences your business interests, underpins your financial arrangements and, by saving you Inheritance Tax, fully safeguards your family.

With widespread flooding, over 60,000 house fires and more than a million homes burgled each year, your important documents are very much at risk. It is also possible to utilise a document
storage vault to ensure all your important paperwork is kept safe and readily available, and we will also write to your Executors, Attorneys and family members, as appropriate, to explain where your documents are kept and how they may be retrieved.

If you would like to receive advice to consider reducing your potential liability to inheritance tax fill in our brief enquiry form and one of our recommended independent advisers will contact you.

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