Another one closes… I know that is the wrong way round but it is how things can work in planning for the future. You want to protect your assets, particularly the family home, so that your family inherit what you have worked hard for.
Making a gift of property to your children can put you at risk and have consequences for Capital Gains Tax. You can defer or avoid tax and increase flexibility and security by putting property in to trust but that can cause an immediate Inheritance Tax bill and result in the loss of important reliefs on death.
We have rules about gifts that are exempt for Inheritance Tax and so we see people giving £3,000 a year away or thinking they have to survive 7 years when they don’t have an IHT problem in the first place. It is also easy to mix those rules up with the restrictions on giving your property away to avoid future care fees but the rules are separate and completely different and sometimes, planning for one thing has a negative impact on something else.
Each case is different and picking a solution off the shelf (or the internet) is not a wise idea. See someone who looks at your individual circumstances, family and financial, knows your aims and your appetite for risk or security and gives you the right information and advice tailored to you.
They might even find solutions to problems you didn’t know you had.