Generally, relatively few cohabitees receive adequate advice on the protection and inter-generational tax planning of their estates, be it pensions, Death in Service (DIS) benefits, life cover, property assets, savings and investments or lifetime inter-generational transfers.
 

Integrated financial planning and effective legal planning are  essential in delivering the desired outcomes for cohabitees. The use of lifetime and deathtime Trust frameworks is a popular, reliable solution but many clients are rarely advised to use them by legal service providers and may be led to believe they are overly complex, and expensive to maintain which need not be the case.
 

Many cohabitees do not even have a Will and do not fully understand what difficulties can be created at probate and that their assets may not be directed where they would like them to go under intestacy rules. Their partner is often excluded from benefiting from the residual estate.
 

Those that do have Wills, have simple Wills that direct assets “absolutely” to their chosen Beneficiaries which is effective for directing wealth but inefficient in protecting it and extremely tax ineffective when assets are directed to a partner where spousal exemption rules do not apply, thus running the risk of double taxation in some cases.
 

If your clients are parents or have family members who they wish to benefit from the wealth they have created during their lifetime, you must consider possible future outcomes that may befall your client’s chosen Beneficiaries and address any concerns that they may have now or may emerge in the future.