inheritance tax and a financial advisor

Sep 19, 2004 9 Replies

My elderly widowed mother has been using a financial advisor for around three years now. She has always been near to the inheritance tax threshhold. In a couple of months she will be getting an extra 80K (industrial illness pay out for my late father). She will be well over it then. Would she expect advice from him on the liability of this tax and ways to reduce it or is it something an independant advisor would stay away from. Thanks


Bitstring , from the wonderful person Steve said

Any decent / competent IFA should offer advice on ways to mitigate the IHT bill (if she wants to .. after all it won't be =her= problem, will it). For the actual 'doing' of it she may need to invoke a lawyer too .. depending which route she decides to go. One presumes she has actually made a Will .. if not, she probably has a worse problem than IHT.

She has a will, I just don't understand why the IFA has not offer advice on IHT since mother wants to avoid it.

He may not know much about it. Has your mother specifically asked for advice?

Rob Graham

Ask if they have the G10 qualification.

Consider a solicitor with finance qualifications -

Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) -

Solicitor IFAs -

hth

Daytona

He knows how much money is involved, although he has not been asked directly about IHT I would have expected some comment from him about it. It was only after comments recently in the press about house prices and IHT that had my mother wondering. He was aware of the vale of her home as he asked. On her next visit she intends asking, I would have thought he would be putting her finance's in place to take into account IHT.

True. Re using a solicitor or an IFA, the chances of either knowing the topic are the same. Some people think that you go to a solicitor for IHT advice, but if it's not his forte then it's a waste of time.

Rob

Why not discuss it with a trust company - after all, IHT avoidance is what they do!

MC

Can't she just give you the 80K? If she doesn't trust you, she can set up a trust and give it to the trust but, either way, she has to give it away and survive 7 years to avoid IHT. The latter option may well not be worth it for that amount.

This is under consideration, although there is still a tax implication. I suppose we will have to accept that we may end up paying something out.

"stuart noble"

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