We should talk about what intestacy rules mean because there is a big hoo-ha every year.
Every summer, you’ll hear it when you turn on the newspaper and when you open the television. Every year with the certainty with which the mushrooms follow the rain, there is a story in the popular press. The headlines tell us top jobs across the land go to the privately educated.
Intestacy Rules: All That is Good
I’m sure you’ve noticed, financially, even socially, all that is good is easier if one was independently educated.
We know the correlation between the top jobs – and having gone to public school.
Intestacy Rules: School Fees
Thirty-five percent of members of parliament elected in 2010 went to independent schools. We educate only 7% of our country’s children privately.
In 2012, and in 2016, 40% of Great Britain’s Olympic games medal winners went to independent school.
Inherited wealth funds school fees. Parents pay schools fees from inherited wealth – through trusts. You can lay the foundations for your family’s wellbeing several generations hence.
The people who pay inheritance tax today are those whose forebears didn’t address the possibility of inheritance tax several generations down the road.
Inheritance planning shields the fruit of your life’s work, your legacy, from being left in the hands of:
- Your spouse’s new husband or wife if they remarry after your death;
- Ex sons- or daughters-in-law;
- Your grandchildren’s’ future stepparents;
- Your children’s creditors;
- Someone else’s grandchildren;
- The tax man.
The question at the heart of every detective story – qui bono – who benefits? The real question is: where, two or three or for generations hence, would you like your descendants financially and socially?
The Benefits of Avoiding Intestacy
More than ever, our young people are headed for university.
But, distressingly, their course choice is a function not of their passions or interests but their earning potential on graduation.
Now, you’ve got a grasp of what the intestacy rules mean. Do you want your descendants to spend their working lives in occupations of they enjoy – income be damned, or spend 40 years in a miserable career? If not, make an appointment for a free, no consultation obligation about planning your inheritance.
What to read next: Can I Avoid Inheritance Tax?
