Tax-efficient investment wrapper holding a range of investments
Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs) have been around since 1999 and are tax-efficient investment wrappers in which you can hold a range of investments, including bonds, equities, property shares, multi-asset funds and even cash, giving you control over where your money is invested.
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Investing for income
Safeguarding your money at a time of low interest rates
How do you generate a reliable income when interest rates are stuck at all-time lows and the Bank of England’s quantitative easing policy of ‘printing’ money is squeezing yields on government bonds (gilts) and other investments? Investors today can still rely on a well-balanced portfolio to meet their needs for income. However, they must be open-minded about the sources of that income and recognise that low-risk income generation is a thing of the past.
Socially responsible investing
Not sacrificing your life principles in exchange for chasing the best financial returns
For investors concerned about global warming and other environmental issues, there are a plethora of ethical investments that cover a multitude of different strategies. The terms ‘ethical investment’ and ‘socially responsible investment’ (SRI) are often used interchangeably to mean an approach to selecting investments whereby the usual investment criteria are overlaid with an additional set of ethical or socially responsible criteria.
Pension freedoms
The most radical changes to pensions in almost a hundred years
In April 2015, the Government introduced the most radical changes to pensions in almost a hundred years. From April last year, individuals from the age of 55 with a defined contribution pension can now access their entire pension flexibly if they wish.
Tax relief and pensions
Annual and lifetime limits
Tax relief means some of your money that would have gone to the Government as tax goes into your pension instead. You can put as much as you want into your pension, but there are annual and lifetime limits on how much tax relief you get on your pension contributions.
State Pension
New rule changes
The State Pension changed on 6 April 2016. If you reached State Pension age on or after that date, you’ll now receive the new State Pension under the new rules. The aim of the new State Pension is to make it simpler to understand, but there are some complicated changeover arrangements which you need to know about if you’ve already made contributions under the previous system.
Defined benefit pension schemes
Secure income for life
A defined benefit pension scheme is one where the amount paid to you is set using a formula based on how many years you’ve worked for your employer and the salary you’ve earned rather than the value of your investments. If you work or have worked for a large employer or in the public sector, you may have a defined benefit pension.
Using your pension pot
More choice and flexibility than ever before
Following changes introduced in April 2015, you now have more choice and flexibility than ever before over how and when you can take money from your pension pot, but it’s essential to obtain professional advice to decide what the best course of action you should take, as this will be your retirement income for the rest of your life.
Life insurance
Providing a financial safety net for your loved ones
Getting the right life insurance policy means working out how much money you need to protect your dependants. This sum must take into account their living costs, as well as any outstanding debts, such as a mortgage. It may be the case that not everyone needs life insurance (also known as ‘life cover’ and ‘death cover’). But if your spouse and children, partner, or other relatives depend on your income to cover the mortgage or other living expenses, then the answer is ‘yes’.
Valuing a deceased person’s estate
Responsibility for paying Inheritance Tax
To arrive at the amount payable when valuing a deceased personís estate, you need to include assets (property, possessions and money) they owned at their death and certain assets they gave away during the seven years before they died. The valuation must accurately reflect what those assets would reasonably receive in the open market at the date of death.
Inheritance Tax is payable by different people in different circumstances. Typically, the executor or personal representative pays it using funds from the deceasedís estate. The trustees are usually responsible for paying Inheritance Tax on assets in, or transferred into, a trust. Sometimes people who have received gifts, or who inherit from the deceased, have to pay Inheritance Tax – but this is not common.
Valuing the deceased personís estate is one of the first things you need to do as the personal representative. You wonít normally be able to take over management of their estate (called applying for probate or sometimes, applying for a grant of representation/confirmation) until all or some of any Inheritance Tax that is due has been paid.
The valuation process
This initially involves taking the value of all the assets owned by the deceased person, together with the value of:
their share of any assets that they own jointly with someone else
any assets that are held in a trust, from which they had the right to benefit
any assets which they had given away, but in which they kept an interest ñ for instance, if they gave a house to their children but still lived in it rent-free
certain assets that they gave away within the last seven years
Next, from the total value above, deduct everything that the deceased person owed, for example:
any outstanding mortgages or other loans
unpaid bills
funeral expenses
(If the debts exceed the value of the assets owned by the person who has died, the difference cannot be set against the value of trust property included in the estate.)
The value of all the assets, less the deductible debts, gives you the estate value. The threshold above which the value of estates is taxed at 40 per cent is currently £325,000 (frozen until April 2014).
When the executor pays Inheritance Tax
Usually, the executor, personal representative or administrator (for estates where thereís no will) pays Inheritance Tax on any assets in the deceasedís estate that are not held in trust.
The money generally comes from the deceased personís estate. However, because the tax must be paid within six months of the death and before the grant of probate can be issued (or grant of confirmation in Scotland), sometimes the executor has to borrow the money or pay it from their own funds. This can happen if it hasnít been possible to get the money from the estate in time because itís tied up in assets that have to be sold.
In these cases, the executor or the people who have advanced the money can be reimbursed from the estate before itís distributed among the beneficiaries.
When a trustee pays Inheritance Tax
Inheritance Tax on transfers into trust is only necessary if the total transfer amount is above the Inheritance Tax threshold. Itís usually payable by the person making the transfer(s) – known as the settlor – not the trustees.
The trustees must pay any Inheritance Tax due on land or assets already held in trust. The occasions for this include:
a transfer out of trust (known as the exit charge)
every ten years after the original transfer into trust (known as the ten-year anniversary charge)
when the beneficiary of the trust (known as the life tenant) dies – interest in possession trusts only
When a beneficiary or a donee has to pay Inheritance Tax
If the executor or the trustees canít pay the Inheritance Tax, the beneficiaries or donees (recipients of gifts made during a personís lifetime) may have to pay it. A beneficiary or donee only has to pay Inheritance Tax in this case if:
they receive a share of an estate after a death
they receive a gift from someone who dies within seven years of making the gift
they benefit from assets in a trust at the time of death or receive income from those assets
they are the joint owner – other than a spouse or a registered civil partner – of a property