Murray Beith Murray LLP is a leading Scottish private client law firm.
For 175 years we have specialised in meeting the legal, financial and administrative needs of individuals and families, family trusts, charities and private companies.
It has recently been reported through a release from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) on 23 April 2024 that UK taxpayers paid £7.5 billion in Inheritance Tax (IHT) from April 2023 to March 2024, being an increase of £0.4 billion from the same period last year.
When you grow old, you will usually want to see out your days in your own home with your faculties still intact. Regrettably, some older people will spend their last days as a resident in a care home. In fact, in Scotland, as of 31 March 2022 (the latest release of these statistics), there were 30,552 older people who were residents in care homes for adults.
Your succession planning is not an exercise to carry out and then forget. You must be vigilant throughout your life to ensure your end-of-life wishes can be fulfilled and that your estate planning remains effective.
When you draw up your Will, it is important to ensure you have catered for the distribution of all your assets. Some of those assets may be abroad. If they are, you need to consider whether they should be dealt with in a single Will or whether a second one is required to deal specifically with your assets in different countries.
It is no secret that, today, parents tend to be wealthier than their children. Wealth built up during a lifetime of work leading to defined benefits pensions and a strong savings mentality combined with home ownership in a market that has seen ever-increasing values means many of today’s pensioners are reasonably well heeled. That leads to an expectation by the younger generation of a windfall through inheritance when a parent passes away. But how and why are your loved ones relying on inheritance?
