A recent survey by Zurich has highlighted the need for education of the general population on inheritance tax issues – something we’ve been pushing at a series of events in recent weeks.

According to Professional Adviser, Zurich research found that 40% of people surveyed by the insurer did not know how much money can be passed on free of inheritance tax. While IHT does not apply to everyone, the figures show – and all the current trends suggest – that a greater proportion of the population will be caught in the IHT net in the coming years, particularly as intergenerational wealth transfer becomes an increasingly hot topic.

It’s therefore important that financial advisers are well-placed to educate their clients on the ins and outs of inheritance tax – and to do that, the advisers themselves need to be fully informed about what’s going on in the market.

Over the course of September, we’re hosting a series of Showcase events focused on the AIM market, with a selection of investment managers speaking at these sessions to give advisers an insight into the types of products on offer. All the products being discussed are business relief qualifying, meaning that they can mitigate IHT for clients. 

It’s not the only way to tackle the IHT issue, but many advisers have admitted over the course of discussions that it is one area they had been less informed about – so creating this opportunity is an important step in broadening the range of possible solutions when IHT threatens an estate.

Despite the fact that it seems 40% of people are unaware of the IHT threshold, there has been a lot of talk of IHT in both the press and political circles over recent months. So it’s perhaps not surprising that one of the issues regularly raised at the Showcases has been the future of tax reliefs – particularly Business Relief – in an AIM context. But there is positivity here, including government recognition of the benefits that BR has provided to the small business community, and the recent recommendations by the Office for Tax Simplification that might make life easier for everyone by making the rules clearer and thereby making managers and advisers more certain of what will and will not qualify for Business Relief.

This just shows the benefit of events such as these, because by bringing together industry stakeholders they have been able to somewhat dispel concerns that may have previously put advisers off recommending a potentially beneficial course of action to their clients.

The AIM Showcase series continued in Lancashire and Yorkshire this week, and you can still book for the remaining two events, in Exeter and Colchester. Click here for more information

And to get a snapshot of the AIM market in 2019, click here to download the AIM Industry Report 2019