I don't know if you will remember but six months ago you (and Jonathan etc) helped me go through a complex financial puzzle involving Mary, Al, Bern etc. The puzzle has simplified because Mary has died.
If you ever have to die then heart failure is the way to go. You leave the house on a cold day, you are active at 78 despite having lived your entire life on a diet of nothing but cream cakes and sticky buns, you come back into the warm lounge surrounded by all your favourite things, settle down in front of the TV with a couple of bars of chocolate and fall asleep.
Heart Failure (not to be confused with Heart Attack, pains across the chest): "You become dizzy for a few seconds then you fall asleep".
Yes I know, "Our thoughts are with you at this tragic moment". The challenge for anyone replying in this thread is: if you *must* come out with platitudes come out with some original ones, the dismal words are off limits, it was a nice way to live and a nice way to die and Al doesn't want to be sad.
However the £120K IHT bill that Al was worrying about 6 months ago kicks in. Al hasn't planned for what he will do if a plane crashes in the garden, he hasn't planned for how he will cope if his leg is amputated, he hasn't planned for how he will cope financially with Mary's death. It's not the sort of thing you plan for.
The huge number of "What if?" scenarios have consolidated themselves down into the singular "What do we do now?" The family set up their scheme up via *excellent* solicitors and reading the will it seems this likelihood was properly forseen, but before we set them on at it £170 per hour (or however much it is 5 years after it was £140 per hour) we would like to understand it for ourselves.
The problem is that the estate owes £120K to the taxman and only has £90K of assets ? plus a house. The house is owned 50:50 with Al. Al has the right to buy the house at:
"?90 per cent of the of the value of my interest in the Property at the time of my death as determined (on the principles which apply for inheritance tax purposes) by a valuer appointed by my Trustees?"
House prices are falling. What is meant by "the principles which apply for inheritance tax purposes"?