Experts are estimating that over the next 3 decades in the UK, a quite staggering £5.5 trillion will be passed down through the generations. This isn’t just good news for the ever-growing numbers of heirs and heiresses, it also offers unprecedented opportunities for financial advisers and wealth managers.
Matthew Steiner, corporate development director at Stellar Asset Management, updates us on how advisers can explore this potentially fertile landscape.
Back in 2019, we launched Stellar ICENI.
Most people probably associate ‘Iceni’ with Boudicca, and the ancient meaning of the word was indeed ‘tribe, family and lineage’.
We thought this was a highly appropriate name for a new programme designed to preserve wealth and to keep it in the family by passing it on to future generations.
It occurred to us that there are too many areas of specialist advice, with no overlap, to reasonably expect a financial adviser to be 100% conversant with all aspects of estate planning business.
After all, the key disciplines of estate planning to support financial planning include investment management solutions, legal services, tax advisory services and estate administration – all specialist sectors.
So we created Stellar ICENI with input and co-operation from a panel of leading independent financial advisers to provide a complete and collaborative estate planning service to advice professionals.
It offers advisers one-stop access to the vital tools they need in order to:
• significantly increase their volume of estate planning business
• strengthen existing and build new relationships with the heirs of their clients
• create a business continuity plan for assets under management
• identify and connect with the wider client family and their advisers, and
• strengthen and grow their client base.
In addition to Stellar’s expertise using Business Relief qualifying activities for Inheritance Tax planning; Stellar ICENI’s service provider partners include:
• Legal services expertise in family and inheritance law, offering wills, Power of Attorney and Trusts
• Bespoke Tax advisory expertise; important for complex cases or where businesses are involved
• Estate administration services – to ensure the tax efficient transfer of wealth to the next generation
Six months later…
Interest and uptake have been gratifying. We launched the scheme to IFAs via a series of seminars across the country, explaining how they can use estate planning as a business tool, and that both young and old can benefit – not just the advisers themselves, but their clients too.
They quickly saw how working together could make them much stronger, and right from the start the feedback was that the scheme was long overdue in a sector which requires so many different facets of specialist knowledge; it brings it all together.
We learned a lot too – for example, we were startled how many advisers simply don’t discuss Inheritance Tax with their clients. And while it may not be a forensic examination, a show of hands at one seminar revealed that an extraordinary 80% of advisers have never used Business Relief before.
Further activity for 2020
Stellar ICENI is all about delivering specialist estate planning cohesion to the benefit of advisers’ clients, while unshackling IFAs to deliver what they do best.
This year we will be developing a toolkit for advisers who want to develop their estate planning skills. We will help them harness the power of Business Relief and provide their clients with robust planning for their estates.
We will provide visual aids, infographics and case studies for them to present to their clients, and we’ll help them with spotting opportunities in their client base and among their professional connections.
We’ll enable them to drill down into their clients’ needs and wishes and see what aspects of estate planning will help leverage their business.
We also intend to go out on the road in partnership with IFAs, so Stellar ICENI and advisers can together present directly to a wider client base.
