Complex Asset Structuring & Inheritance Tax Protection

In this video, Ken Maxwell, Director at John Lamb Hill Oldridge, explains how his team navigated a highly complex client situation to provide tailored inheritance tax protection.

The Challenge

The client’s situation was relatively complicated due to the wide variety of assets and the different structures holding them. The portfolio requiring review included:

A mixture of trust assets and personal assets.

Assets that had been recently gifted down to the individual or couple.

Specific assets that attracted Business Property Relief (BPR).

A host of different asset types receive different tax treatments, all of which need to be carefully considered as part of the overarching planning.

The Process

To ensure a cohesive strategy, the team began by organising a group call with the client’s other advisors, specifically their lawyers and accountants. This collaborative step was designed to:

Ensure all parties were on the same page regarding the plan and the specific issues that needed to be addressed.

Design a bespoke protection plan tailored to the clients’ unique needs.

Ensure that the proposed solutions work within a realistic and affordable budget.

The Solution & Outcome

The firm successfully implemented protection to address the client’s inheritance tax exposure while staying within their budget. Key outcomes included:

Reviewing and successfully replacing the existing coverage the client had previously set up elsewhere.

Controlling future costs by replacing reviewable contracts that were destined to climb in premium over the years, which could have ultimately become unaffordable and lapsed.

Achieving a highly positive result at a good price, giving the client and their estate long-term security for the future.