Estate Planning Guide

GUY TOLHURST MANAGING DIRECTOR, INTELLIGENT PARTNERSHIP Estate planning is an area that solicitors and accountants will be familiar with, and done right it’s a very valuable area of practice. The government’s IHT receipts reached record levels in 2017/18 and the IHT net is set to catch an increasing number of estates. With more and more of their clients facing IHT liabilities, professionals should be asking themselves if they are really making the most of potential estate planning business. The traditional ‘one size fits all’ business models are under constant challenge and scrutiny from clients and regulators alike. Understandably, clients are increasingly looking for an efficient and joined-up approach for the management of their legal and financial affairs. Solicitors and accountants are ideally placed to offer a more holistic proposition here, either directly or through a relationship with a regulated financial adviser. There are some natural overlaps between what the legal, accountancy and finance professions can offer in areas such as estate planning, trusts, cash flow modelling, investment advice and later life issues including equity release or long-term care planning. With their combined knowledge bases and separate areas of expertise, there are genuine opportunities to develop these professional connections and work together for mutual gain, and to better serve the complementary needs of each other’s clients. That’s all very well, but there are clearly lots of areas to consider: Whether to develop your own financial advisory proposition? How to select the right professional firms to work with? How to decide what structure to use? What are the compliance requirements to consider? When and how to refer clients? The list goes on. So that was the rationale for writing this Guide, to help professionals better understand the estate planning landscape and the options for them and their clients. It’s our first edition so we have taken our time over it and we have included thought leadership from industry associations, membership organisations, technical consultancies and providers of estate planning solutions to ensure it’s as balanced and comprehensive as possible. We hope that you find this Guide useful and informative. If you’re a regulated adviser please do share it with professionals in your area to help foster a more collaborative approach to estate planning. Opening Statement Introduction This Guide is designed as a concise and impartial reference document, giving common- sense assistance on technical, planning and legislative aspects of estate planning and IHT (IHT) mitigation using case studies, detail on the options available and practical tips. Its goal is to give professionals, particularly solicitors and accountants, the insight and knowledge they need to identify and discuss estate planning solutions with their clients. The majority of arrangements set out in this Guide can generally only be accessed through a duly authorised financial adviser. They are also designed to complement rather than replace more widely known and fundamental strategies such as Will planning and lifetime gifts. For more specific guidance on Business Relief (BR), Intelligent Partnership has produced a free annual Advisers Guide to BR as well as a BR Industry Report, which provides opinion, research and market analysis - including current key metrics, new entrants, services & developments, forecasts, and adviser & product provider commentaries. Learning Objectives After reading the Guide professionals will: • Understand the range of estate planning options that are available • Feel confident discussing the various estate planning solutions with their clients • Have the knowledge to evaluate any estate planning advice their clients have received • Feel confident to forge the relevant commercial relationships and to implement client referral arrangements • Understand how to deliver holistic estate planning advice (subject to regulatory approvals to do so) either in conjunction with regulated advisers or their own wealth management division A publication like this is rarely the product of one organisation’s efforts: to ensure that it is up to date, comprehensive, accurate and captures all of the key issues requires an industry wide initiative. We’ve had plenty of help producing this Guide and would like to thank our co-authors Dave Robinson FCCA APFS IMC TEP LLAA CFP cm and Anne Hills FPFS. Both Dave and Anne are Chartered Financial Planners and work with Centurion Chartered Financial Planners. We are also very grateful to John Bunker, Sheldon Cole, Jane Finnerty, Fiona Graham, Edward Grant, Louise Polcaro, Claire Trott, Karon Walton. Their input is invaluable. but needless to say, any errors or omissions are ours. Most of all we would like to thank Blackfinch Investments, Canada Life, Downing, Foresight, Ingenious, Oxford Capital, Puma, TIME Investments, Triple Point and Way Group It would not be possible to produce educational material like this without their generous support and contribution towards the production, printing and distribution of the Guide. Acknowledgements