Time to take charge and plan ahead

Drewberry Wealth & Protection Survey included some alarming statistics and as the year ends it is a good time report on putting the right plans in place to safeguard your loved ones. The survey results showed: "Over 39% of working Britons describe leaving some measure of wealth to their loved ones as a priority – yet only 13% of these people have done anything to assess if they could have an IHT liability” “ 42% say it ‘would be nice’ to leave assets but it’s ‘no priority’ while 16% don’t expect to have anything left to leave! Less than 3% of Britons ‘don’t intend’ to leave their loved ones anything. 39% of Britons have £1,000 or less in cash savings while 42% have over £1,000 in debt. Over 1 in 4 Britons (26%) has more than £5,000 in non-mortgage debt. 60% of working Britons have no idea which of their assets will attract inheritance tax when they die. Meanwhile, 87% mistakenly think their pension savings will attract inheritance tax; 12% wrongly believe their house will be IHT-free with around 10% mistakenly believing that cash and ISA savings are both exempt from inheritance tax. 30% of working Britons expect to inherit £50,000 or more from older relatives during the course of their lives. Despite the UK’s racing property prices, just 3.7% of those surveyed expect to inherit assets in excess of £400,000.” Read the full survey Cotswold Independent Financial Services is quite unusual in that we provide independent financial advice and also are members of the Society of Will Writers, so you can work with the same people to ensure your intentions are understood and the planning process supports them.