Tax Efficient

As the government’s IHT take continues to increase year on year, the importance of Business Relief (BR) as an estate planning method has certainly not diminished. The OTS’ second report in its review of IHT recognised the importance BR in supporting family-owned businesses, and growth investment. While it has recommended addressing some inconsistencies in the rules governing BR qualification, it has also suggested changes that would open more trades and structures to BR eligiblity. 

This is a sector that offers advisers additional tools in their estate planning arsenal but it’s important to stay up to date with developments and create and leverage expertise to obtain the best client outcomes. 

The Alternative Investment Market (AIM) has demonstrated increasing maturity over the past year – while still living up to its reputation as “the world’s leading growth market”. Despite a number of headwinds that have caused volatility, not to mention the ongoing uncertainty created by Brexit, AIM has shown resilience and the ability to bounce back from global economic turmoil to show its second largest ever market value.

This strength is clearly being welcomed by financial advisers, who have shown in our third AIM Industry Report that they still recognise the market as one with good growth potential for clients. Brexit has not dampened their willingness to recommend AIM, while for nearly three-quarters of advisers 2018’s volatility has not impacted their enthusiasm for the market.

This latest edition of our AIM Industry Report examines those advisers’ views in more detail, and takes a closer look at the underlying statistics in the market, including analysing the various tax-efficient offers available on AIM. It also gets under the hood of recent regulatory changes designed to polish AIM’s reputation.