Three generations of a family

Inheritance and succession

Almost everything that reduces an inheritance tax bill needs years to work, which is why the people who leave it latest pay the most.

Regular gifting out of income and the seven-year rule are the two big ones, and both are clocks. Start them in your sixties and they do a great deal. Start them in your eighties and they barely move the number.

Start by finding out what the bill would be today. We will work it out, then show you what each option changes, and there is no charge for that.

The rules as they stand

40%the rate on death above the nil rate band
£325,000nil rate band, frozen until 5 April 2030
£175,000residence nil rate band, where a home passes to direct descendants
£1mpossible combined relief for a married couple or civil partners

2026/27 rates. Thresholds and reliefs move at Budgets, and how they apply to your circumstances is the part that needs advice.

Gifts made in your lifetime that do not qualify as exempt are Potentially Exempt Transfers, and they fall outside your estate provided you survive them by seven years. Die inside that period and the gift comes back into the calculation, though taper relief can reduce the tax on gifts made more than three years before death. Keeping records of what you gave and when matters enormously.

From 6 April 2025, UK inheritance tax follows an individual's tax residency. Domicile no longer decides it. It applies to the worldwide assets of long-term UK residents and to UK assets of people who are not UK resident.

Which gifts are exempt?

Used consistently, year after year, these move a great deal out of an estate without anything elaborate.

Three generations of a family together

Business succession

Succession planning is deciding who takes on your business when you retire or die. Left undecided, it gets decided for you.

If you run a limited company and want to share ownership between several children, a senior employee or an external buyer, a shareholders' agreement settles it while everybody involved is still reasonable. Selling may change how you are taxed, and if you sell intending to retire you need to tell HMRC.

Without a succession plan, the rules of intestacy apply to your shareholding exactly as they do to everything else you own.

Funding the buy-out →

Questions people ask us

How does the seven-year rule work?

A Potentially Exempt Transfer falls out of your estate entirely if you survive seven years from making it. Die within that period and it comes back into the calculation, though taper relief can reduce the tax due on gifts made more than three years before death.

Are trusts still worth using?

Often, for control as much as for tax. A trust lets you decide who benefits and when, which matters where beneficiaries are young, vulnerable, or in a relationship you would rather the money were protected from. Some trusts carry tax charges, which need understanding at the outset.

Can I give away my house and keep living in it?

Not without consequence. Give away an asset while continuing to benefit from it and the gift with reservation of benefit rules generally keep it inside your estate anyway, potentially with an income tax charge on top. It is one of the most common and most expensive mistakes.

Can life cover pay the bill instead?

Yes. If you would rather not gift assets while you are alive, a life policy written under an appropriate trust can pay out on death an amount matching the liability, so the estate does not have to be broken up to settle it.

When should we start?

Earlier than most people think. The most effective tools need years to work, so the planning that achieves most is the planning that started soonest.

What would the inheritance tax bill be?

What your estate would pay as things stand, and which bands you can use.

Open the calculatorAll three calculators

Answered in full

Longer answers to the questions that come up most on this subject.

What happens if I die without a will?

The rules of intestacy decide, and they were not written with your family in mind.

Read the answer →

Start with a free conversation.

Tell us what is on your mind: a pension you have lost track of, a fixed rate ending, a will you keep meaning to write. We will tell you honestly whether we can help.