What is estate planning?
Estate planning is preparing a plan of action for transferring your assets to your beneficiaries or next of kin. This can allow you to pass over more of your estate by transferring assets in a tax-efficient manner.
Tax treatment depends on an individual’s circumstances and may be subject to change in the future.
An individual’s estate usually includes assets such as:
- Property
- Investments
- Vehicles
- Antiques
- Life insurance or assurance policies
- Pensions
- Savings
- Debt.
What’s in an estate plan?
Your estate plan details your total assets, including your house, possessions and accounts and how you’d like these assets to be managed when you pass away.
Clearly laying out your net worth with an estate plan is an official declaration within a legal document of how you would like to distribute your assets.
An estate plan can help you with the following:
What happens if you don’t plan your estate?
If you haven’t written a will before you pass or become incapacitated, you are declared to have deceased ‘intestate.’
This means your estate will be divided and distributed according to the legal requirements of intestacy, taking away any personal decisions you otherwise would have made.
Want to know more about estate planning?
Visit our inheritance tax and estate planning page to find out how expert advice could help you.
Important legal information
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Schroders Personal Wealth is a trading name of Scottish Widows Schroder Personal Wealth Limited.