Spring into action with your estate planning

After a long and dark winter, we will all be pleased to see some brighter mornings and lighter evenings as we move into spring. Although spring cleaning is usually associated with dusting off the cobwebs at home and decluttering, it can equally be applied to thinking about your estate plans as we move into a new season.

For those thinking of “springing” into action with their succession plans this spring, the following is a helpful list of things to consider.

Estate planning essentials

Your will

It is essential to put a will in place.

This allows you to decide who receives your estate and who will be responsible for ensuring that your wishes are honoured. Your will can include conditions regarding when beneficiaries receive their inheritance. Putting a will in place allows you to take control of what happens to your assets when you pass away.

If you die without a will, the law decides who receives your estate. In certain circumstances, this can result in beneficiaries receiving substantial assets at age 16. For cohabiting couples, dying without a will can create significant extra difficulties.

Your power of attorney

Putting a power of attorney in place can be extremely useful if you lose capacity in the future. A power of attorney allows your nominated attorneys to make decisions regarding your finances and personal welfare for your benefit. This can also be useful for situations where you still have capacity but are not e.g. physically available to sign off on particular decisions or if it would simply be more convenient for your attorneys to assist you.

Death benefits

If you have certain death benefits, such as a pension or death-in-service benefits, you should have up-to-date nominations or expression of wish forms in place.

These types of benefits are often not covered by the terms of your will. As such, it is very important to consider these benefits when thinking about your overall succession plan. This is particularly important for pensions in light of the associated upcoming inheritance tax changes coming into force in April 2027.

Keeping these documents up-to-date

For those who already have these documents in place, it is important to keep the documents up-to-date.

We usually recommend reviewing your documents if your personal circumstances have changed or every 5 years. As part of this, think about whether or not the documents are still in line with your intentions or if your objectives have changed. It is also important to consider the circumstances of your proposed beneficiaries, executors and attorneys – for example, if your attorney has moved to the other side of the world, they might not be the best person to act in this role for you going forward. Another example would be if you now have concerns regarding how a particular beneficiary will use their inheritance.

Your assets

It is also important to consider your assets when thinking about your estate plan.

For those with shares in a family private company or partnership, it is important to understand what will happen to your share of the business on your passing. Companies and partnerships usually have constitutional documents that will outline what happens when a shareholder or partner dies. If this is relevant to you, it is important to think about this holistically when considering your estate plan.

If your will includes substantive trust provisions (for example a discretionary or liferent trust), it is essential to consider how the title to your property is held. For example, if you wish for your share of your house to be held in trust for your family after your death, it is important that your title deeds do not automatically provide that your share of the house will pass outright to the other title holder.

Inheritance tax

There have been significant changes to inheritance tax recently.

April 2026 will see the introduction of restrictions to agricultural property relief and business property relief. It is essential for those with agricultural and / or business assets to take advice in this area. As mentioned above, April 2027 will also see changes to the inheritance tax regime for pensions with certain pension benefits being brought into the inheritance tax net.

In addition to these changes, the general inheritance tax threshold has been capped at £325,000 since 2009 and the intention is for the threshold to remain at this level until April 2031. Similarly, the additional threshold with regard to a person’s residence is also likely to remain at its current level until April 2031.

These changes and the freezing of the current thresholds will mean that more estates will be subject to inheritance tax in the future. As such, as part of any estate planning exercise, it is worthwhile considering your inheritance tax position and keeping this under review. Although reliefs are being restricted and thresholds are being frozen, there are still effective estate planning strategies, but taking professional advice is crucial.

Springing into action

As we move out of the winter months, it is a great time to spring into action with your estate planning.

Whether it is a case of dusting off your existing will and power of attorney or starting afresh with a new strategy to clean up issues around inheritance tax or asset protection concerns, our wills and estate planning lawyers are pleased to assist.