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n Are your family members equipped and prepared to manage their inherited assets in a competent way?
n Should something happen to you tomorrow, is your family confident that they have enough knowledge of your finances to compile a comprehensive overview of your wealth?
n Do you have all the required documents and do your loved ones know where to find them?
n Have you introduced your family to your advisers, including your investment manager, family solicitor, tax adviser, financial planner, and accountant?
n Have you come up with a detailed succession plan for your family business? n Do you have an up to date Will with executor(s) in place?
n Do you have any charitable or philanthropic intentions, which you would like your family to carry on?
Dealing with complexities
When you have gone over the conceptual issues, it is time to consult again with your trusted advisory team to ensure that your strategy meets your family's needs comprehensively – both in the present and future.
You and your advisers are likely to address issues such as asset transition, business succession, and Trust management approaches to provide protection and control over your wealth. Legacy planning is a complex process which needs constant adjustment and supervision to keep pace with changing tax rules, new financial planning strategies and your evolving circumstances. You and your advisers will explore these through the use of insurance policies, Trusts or other methods. Although you can never totally remove risk from your world, by employing careful risk controls, you can take action to build a support structure for yourself and your family.
Important Estate
Planning Documents
Setting up these early can ease the process of defining your legacy, who controls and inherits what, and how you would like to be remembered:
n Legal Will
n Ethical Will
n Lasting Power of Attorney - Property and Financial Affairs
n Lasting Power of Attorney - Health and Welfare
n Advance Decisions - Living Will Consider your estate plan as a living, breathing document, one that changes as your life develops.
With concerns like these, a Trust arrangement may be an effective tool for addressing your issues.
Opportunities for strategic
wealth transfer
A Trust is essentially a legal arrangement that enables you (the “donor” or "settlor") to ring-fence assets and assign someone (the “trustee(s)” who may be you or anyone else ) to oversee them for the benefit of a person, group of people or entity (the “beneficiary” or “beneficiaries”) of your choosing
Your advisers can explore which Trust structures will help you to improve your estate plan and potentially increase tax efficiency, such as:
Bare Trust - This is a relatively simple but binding legal arrangement, where assets are held by a trustee, for example a parent or grandparent, for the benefit of a beneficiary i.e. a child, for example. Discretionary Trust - A Discretionary Trust relies on the ‘discretion’ of the trustees who are appointed by the settlor to manage the Trust. The advantage with a Discretionary Trust is that the trustees can retain assets until they think it is the right time for them to be distributed, whereas in a Bare Trust, the assets must be distributed to the beneficiaries who are over 18, if they ask for them.
There are many other variants of Trusts which can be tailored to fit various circumstances, such as:
n Interest in Possession Trusts
n Accumulation Trusts
n Mixed Trusts
n Settlor-interested Trusts
n Charitable Trusts
n Non-resident Trusts
Trusts can be complicated and expert guidance is essential. Our dedicated Trusts & Estates team will consult with your other financial and legal advisers to ensure your Trust arrangements compliment your overall estate plan.
Family wealth transfer
You have worked diligently to develop and protect your wealth. Now you want to share it with your chosen beneficiaries. This process requires careful attention to detail as it is fraught with pitfalls.
We recognise this and are here to help you feel secure about your wealth transition. Our team of financial planners, accountants, tax advisers, investment managers, and solicitors can work with you to build a smart strategy. You may be worried, for example, that a family member is not qualified or willing to manage considerable wealth, or you might wish to minimise Inheritance Tax. You might have specific charitable and legacy planning objectives that you would like to achieve.
Whatever stage in life, good advice is invaluable. We’d like to hear from you - contact Robin Jackson, left, or Matthew Boardman, right
18 Langton Place, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, IP33 1NE
T: 01284 701271 W: churchgates.co.uk E: info@churchgates.co.uk
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