For most who might leave an Inheritance Tax bill to pay when they depart, there aren’t that many ways to get around it. For most leaving their money to kids with house making up most of the value, it boils down to giving away the assets you don’t live in and hanging on for seven years, giving some to charity or taking it on the chin and setting up life insurance to provide the funds. The other remaining option is to invest in smaller or unlisted companies, whose shares get relief from IHT after 2 years. As allowances have been frozen and there aren’t many other options, it’s no wonder this is an increasingly important, or at least available option. You get the tax break because it’s risky, so it’s not for everyone or for all of what you have. So the advice is…take (independent financial) advice.
“Why people over the age of 55 are the new problem generation”
I suspect that many a ‘boomer’ might be pleased with the ‘problem generation’ label. When they were teen- or twenty-somethings, their parents’ generation may well have either despaired of them or worried about the world into which they were emerging as adults; it will ever be thus.