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Gifting is often promoted as the most tax-efficient way to reduce an estate. But for many clients, giving assets away simply doesn’t feel right.

Business Relief can offer an alternative, reducing inheritance tax while allowing assets to remain firmly in the client’s own name.

Most estate planning depends on time, the one variable no one can control. Gifting, the most common strategy, can take up to seven years to fall outside the estate for Inheritance Tax.

When circumstances change, a carefully constructed long-term plan can quickly become a short-term problem.

Building a family business often takes decades of work and risk. One comfort many owners have is knowing that, if the business is passed to the next generation, it may qualify for Business Relief (BR) and avoid being broken up to pay a future Inheritance Tax (IHT) bill.

Inheritance Tax was originally designed to target large, concentrated family wealth. Today, it draws in estates of relatively modest means, driven by rising property values, inflation, and frozen allowances.

Those without a spouse or direct descendants are more exposed still. Many of the key reliefs simply don’t apply, leaving a greater proportion of their estate subject to tax.

Insurance is commonly used in estate planning yet it does not reduce the liability itself and should generally be used alongside other planning strategies.

For many clients, Business Relief can represent a complementary or alternative approach by potentially reducing the value of an estate for Inheritance Tax purposes.