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.
If you are concerned about how much Inheritance Tax (IHT) your estate will be liable for when you pass away, leaving a gift to charity could reduce your bill. Gifts to charity, when properly executed, can reduce or, in certain circumstances, even eliminate your inheritance tax liability entirely as they do not count towards the taxable value of the estate. In this article, we look at the tax benefits of leaving gifts to charity, what you can gift, and how to leave a gift in your Will.
Many people believe that estate planning and writing a Will are the same thing. However, although Will writing is an important aspect of estate planning, the process involves much more. Estate planning goes further than Will writing to clarify your wishes about your finances, health, care, and more. In this article, we look at the interaction between Will writing and estate planning to help you determine which process is right for you.
For many of us, a Will is one of the most important documents that we will ever prepare. Knowing that our wishes are explicitly stated for our loved ones to follow after our death can bring some comfort. We might rewrite or alter our Wills as we progress through life, but what happens if changes are needed to your Will after you have died? Is it possible to do this? This post will discuss the situations where this issue might arise and what can be done.
A significant amount of charities’ income is made up of gifts left in Wills. Leaving a gift in your Will to a charity that you support could help them conduct vital research, or support society’s most vulnerable people. Without the support of gifts in Wills, many charities would fail to survive.
There are several reasons why you may need to contest a Will. Perhaps dependants have not been adequately provided for, or you believe certain gifts were made under undue influence. The process for contesting a Will can be lengthy and in many cases, complex. In this post, we take a look at how long you can expect the process to take and factors that may bring this challenging time to an end.
