Married Couples

Protecting the Estates of Married Couples

Protect your family wealth

Generally, few married clients or legal partnerships receive adequate advice on the protection and inter-generational tax planning of their estate, be it pensions, Death in Service (DIS) benefits, life cover, property assets, savings and investments or lifetime inter-generational transfers, it is up to you to rectify this with your own clients and make sure they are as prepared and informed as possible.

Integrated financial planning and effective legal planning are essential in delivering guaranteed outcomes for the distribution and protection of your clients' estates. If your clients do not have a Will, they may be unaware of the complexities and misdirection of wealth that can occur under intestacy rules. If your clients, like so many couples, have simple wills directing their estate to each other and then to their chosen Beneficiaries in equal shares, they should achieve their desired distribution, but they may be missing an opportunity to protect the surviving partner’s interests, they may be missing tax planning opportunities and they will not provide inter-generational benefits to their chosen Beneficiaries.

The unpredictability of life requires us to be prepared but you ought to take action now to address the shortfalls of the most common estate planning arrangements with your clients. On the death of the first of your clients, protective and tax efficient planning can be put in place and similarly protection, flexibility and inter-generational tax planning can be delivered to the ultimate Beneficiaries of their estate when both of them have deceased. Such planning can be achieved by upgrading their current planning to a Beneficiary Protection Plan from Solidus.

A customised plan for your clients can address any number of concerns such as:

If your client enters into a new relationship after their partner deceases, the estate will be protected for your surviving client and ultimately guaranteed for the chosen Beneficiaries of the deceased client.
If your surviving client is in poor health or requires care fees in the future, the estate can be ring-fenced following the death of the first client. Thismay avoid a claim being made by a local authority. This is more robust and less intrusive than some of the care fee avoidance schemes that are marketed.
If your clients have an estate that may creep into the realms of IHT when they both pass away, a Beneficiary Protection Plan may help to reduce the tax burden for their primary Beneficiaries.
If your clients have two children, statistically, one of them may be unfortunate enough to experience a relationship failure. Without protection, a risk to their inheritance exists.
If your client’s chosen Beneficiaries are independently wealthy, their inheritance could be caught unnecessarily by inter-generational taxation.

If you look ahead, you will see the potential threats that may arise in the future and consider more robust and tax efficient planning for your legal partnership clients.