FAQs

Estate Planning involves passing on more of your assets to your children and other by reducing your potential Inheritance Tax Bill. This usually involves making financial gifts but there are other options.

The Financial Conduct Authority does not regulate will writing, inheritance tax planning and estate planning.

No. Making a Will is not a once in a lifetime event, so you do not have to squeeze everything into it! A Will should reflect your circumstances as they are now, not what they might be in the future. We recommend that you should review your Will every five years or so to make sure it is still appropriate for your circumstances.

The Financial Conduct Authority does not regulate will writing, inheritance tax planning and estate planning.

Each UK resident has a Nil Rate Tax Band of currently £325,000 if the estate exceeds this on death the amount over the nil rate band taxed at 40%. There are several different ways to reduce your Inheritance Tax Bill:

-    Make outright gifts.
-    Set up a trust.
-    Keep your assets while reducing your estate.
-    Managing Inheritance Tax without making gifts.
-    Raising debts against the estate for example an equity release mortgage.
-    Or simply accept the tax and hold a life assurance policy in trust to allocate funds to this.

The Financial Conduct Authority does not regulate will writing, inheritance tax planning and estate planning.

If you pass away without a Will, you will leave your loved ones with far more work to do after your death. It is highly likely that your possession will not be distributed the way you want.

Instead, the government has laid down rules called intestacy rules which state who has authority to act on the distribution of your estate. These government rules also stipulate who will inherit your property and possessions. It is unlikely this will match your own wishes and it typically has a negative tax consequence as well as cause potential heartache. For example, a partner may not receive anything, a house could be split and other wishes may not be followed.

The Financial Conduct Authority does not regulate will writing, inheritance tax planning and estate planning.

Change in family relationships: if you have married, entered a civil partnership, moved in with your partner, divorced, separated, had a civil partnership dissolved, been widowed or are a surviving civil partner.

Family growth: if you have become a parent, grandparent, see your family grow or children have entered your life through a new relationship.

Guardianship: If you have minor children a legal guardian can be named in your will with directions to the guardian.

Reserve beneficiaries: A Will can fail due to beneficiaries predeceasing you it is prudent to name a reserve beneficiary to avoid dying intestate.

The Financial Conduct Authority does not regulate will writing, inheritance tax planning and estate planning.

A Will is a document created to give directions for the distribution of the assets you own on death. Your properties, assets and belonging (commonly called your Estate) are divided up as per your wishes and passed to whomever you chose, known as Beneficiaries.

The Will also indicates who will manage the distribution of your estate. The chosen person is known as the Executor(s) of your Will. They are also responsible to appoint Guardians to look after minor children when both parents have died.

Your premium will vary depending on the type of policy, the size of the sum assured and the risk of the claim – if you have a dangerous job, for example.

Also, age is factor, so life insurance will be more expensive for an older person. Similarly, if a customer is in poor health they can expect to pay a higher premium.

The insurer will consider occupation, hobbies, lifestyle – such as weight and fitness – to help determine their premiums.

Terminal Illness - is usually included in Life Assurance policies at no extra costs. It could pay out your chosen amount of cover if you are diagnosed with a terminal illness and have a life expectancy of 12 months or less, rather than on death.

Critical illness Cover – is an additional policy. It is designed to pay out your chosen amount of cover if you’re diagnosed with one of the providers specified critical illnesses (for example heart attack, stroke etc) during the length of your policy.

A decreasing term policy provides a level of cover that decreases throughout the term of the policy, broadly in line with a repayment loan or mortgage. This is usually cost-effective way to achieve the required level of cover.

It depends on your individual circumstances. You may want to think about leaving a lump sum to your dependents, inherence tax and estate planning or help to clear an outstanding mortgage on your death.