Private Client team save client thousands

Recently, Meggie Crane, a Graduate Legal Executive working out of our Poundbury office, took a telephone call from a lady whose mother had sadly just passed away. The lady had some experience of administering estates and therefore wanted to simply collect her mother’s Will so that she could proceed with administering her mother’s estate in her capacity of sole Executrix.

Meggie met with the lady the following week to hand over her mother’s Will and offered a free initial, no obligation appointment to go through the estate to make sure she was on the right track.  At Blanchards Bailey we routinely meet with clients in this way to ensure that they are not overlooking something important and to offer advice generally. Sometimes clients are completely in control and leave content with that reassurance, but sometimes we are able to offer expert advice that will prove very valuable to clients.

During the meeting the lady mentioned that the estate would be taxable. The net estate was in the region of £430,000 and the deceased was divorced meaning that only a single nil rate band of £325,000 was available to set against the value of her estate. At the date of death the deceased did not own a property.

However, the deceased had sold her home in April 2016 as she had decided to move into a care home. Although the bulk of her assets were now invested and she no longer held an interest in a property, Meggie was able to identify that as the sale had taken place after July 2015 the Residential Nil Rate Band would also be available to set against the estate.

The Inheritance Tax Laws, and those relating to the Residence Nil Rate Band in particular, can be extremely difficult to navigate and this is just one of many examples of how taking expert legal advice from the outset can have huge benefits in the long run.

In this example the entire estate passed free of Inheritance and a delighted client saved over £40,000. All from having a chat with a member of the Blanchards Bailey Private Client team.

For further information on how our team can help you, contact Meggie Crane on:

01305 217309

meggie.crane@blanchardsbailey.co.uk