I am sorting out a divorce settlement at the moment. One of the assets being transferred around to balance things out is an endowment policy, currently solely in my (soon to be ex) wife's name.
There are two choices:
- She deeds the policy over to me, then I can pay it, freeze it or sell it, whatever suits at the time.
- She surrenders/sells it and gives me the cash.
It's a qualifying policy, so I think she has no CGT or other tax to pay if she cashes it in. However, the currently agreed plan is to just deed it to me, and it will take some bargaining to get her to do the work.
If she deeds it to me and I then sell it at a later date, would I then be liable to CGT or anything else on the proceeds? i.e. is there possibly a significant financial penalty to doing it that way round?
(It's more than three years since we separated, so the usual husband/wife gift exemptions don't apply. I know *now* we should have done it all sooner...)