Making a Will is a vital part of any estate planning exercise. Sharing wealth with family and other loved ones in the most tax efficient way possible, is a priority for most people. Their aim is to provide for partners and ensure that children are supported financially to achieve their goals, whether those include buying a property, or starting a family or business.
Dealing with the death of a family member or close friend is always difficult for those involved; the last thing anyone wants to deal with when grieving is navigating complicated tax and legal procedures. It is no wonder that the probate process can appear a daunting prospect to the personal representatives or 'PRs' (the people entitled to deal with a deceased person's estate, who are also known as 'executors' when they are appointed in a Will). We provide a helpful guide to the probate process, which can be broken down into five key steps.
Governments recognise that encouraging people to start businesses and employ others is important for the economy, and that any charge to tax on disposal should be mitigated to recognise the years of work involved in building a business, and the financial risk that people take in doing so.
In the past, if people wanted to pass wealth to their children (often prompted by the prospect of ultimately paying inheritance tax if they did not) they would use trusts, because then they could keep the assets under their control.
I have recently provided my daughter with funds to buy a flat in her own name and she wants her boyfriend to move in. Could he have a legal or financial claim on the property if they split?
As Partner and Head of Family at Forsters, and having worked with hundreds of divorcing couples in the past 20 years, Jo Edwards shares her insight into where many marriages go wrong and tips on how to keep yours happy. This article was originally published in Brides magazine.
This briefing provides an introduction to family philanthropy, outlining the key issues that need to be considered in order to ensure a successful charitable project.
Special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) have been around for a while and although they may have “historically been viewed as a bit shady” (Axios correspondent Felix Salmon), 2020 seemed to have been (at least for them) a good year, with SPACs (particularly in the US) being increasingly used as a means for established private companies to access capital markets and go public.
The government has announced that the measures which were put in place last year to assist commercial tenants during the Covid-19 pandemic will be extended, once again, to 30 June 2021.
The effect of the latest announcement is as follows:
Following the recent introduction of significant new planning legislation, our Planning team have outlined a useful guide to the new use class system and a guide to new permitted development rights.
