You only need to look at the amount of tax raised from failed gifts to see how costly delays can be. The most recent data available shows £197 million was raised from failed lifetime gifts in the 2017/18 tax year alone. *
But your client won’t necessarily appreciate the urgency of estate planning. And that’s where a more indirect approach to the estate planning conversation can make all the difference.
Make the conversation about loved ones
A client can need help to see inheritance tax planning as a priority. Otherwise, it becomes easier for them to delay their planning.
Ideally, a client would see inheritance tax planning as an extension of making a will. It’s about maximising outcomes for loved ones. It’s about achieving the best results for the people that matter to a client.
You might begin the estate planning conversation by focusing on what the client wants for their family and their family’s future. Why is that important to the client? Eventually – how might inheritance tax impact those goals?
Involving the family is a good idea whether in a pandemic or not. That said, it has been especially important over the past year.
Bringing beneficiaries into discussions can help where there are concerns about vulnerability. And it’s often the younger sons and daughters that are most comfortable with video calls and remote meetings. So involving the client’s family has helped many advisers move estate planning conversations forward.
Of course it’s also the beneficiaries who ultimately benefit from the planning, so having them in the conversation will help accelerate a client’s planning.
But how might you involve a client’s beneficiaries in a natural way?
Two things you’ll find in our estate planning toolkit
Advisers find two Octopus documents useful in involving a client’s wider family. One is a guide to being an executor. Another is a document we call “What I own and where I keep it”.
These help prepare a client’s family for the transfer of wealth and can be used to trigger early meetings about estate planning that include the whole family.
You’ll find these documents, along with other useful resources, as part of a new estate planning report.
The report draws on a survey of more than 700 advisers and conversations Octopus has had with advisers across the UK. It covers how you can overcome three common challenges advisers are facing when planning a client’s estate.
Read the report and access the toolkit here.
*More heirs hit by inheritance tax as families fall foul of gift rules, Financial Times, 4 December 2020
We do not offer investment or tax advice. Issued by Octopus Investments Limited, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Registered office: 33 Holborn, London, EC1N 2HT. Registered in England and Wales No. 03942880. Issued: April 2021. CAM010883
