Wills, Tax & Trusts Ltd

Wills, Tax & Trusts Ltd Specialist estate, inheritance tax and succession planning for families, business owners and their advisers in Wokingham, Berkshire. Founded by Ray L.

Best, author of Pension Paradigm. 5.0 ★ from 26 Google reviews.

For the accountants, advisers and solicitors following this page.HMRC published a second technical note on the inheritan...
09/10/2026

For the accountants, advisers and solicitors following this page.

HMRC published a second technical note on the inheritance tax treatment of pensions in August, covering the mechanics rather than the principle: notional pension property, the information-sharing requirements between schemes and personal representatives, withholding notices, the pensions direct payment scheme, and clearance.

It is worth reading properly if you have clients with substantial defined contribution pots, because it is the first material that answers the practical question - not “is the pension in the estate” but “who tells whom, in what order, and by when”.

Three implications we are already working through with firms:

1. Executor briefing becomes part of the planning conversation, not an afterthought. Your client’s named executor is about to acquire a reporting duty nobody has explained to them.

2. Liquidity planning gets earlier. The tax falls due before probate, on an asset the estate cannot access without the scheme’s cooperation.

3. Expression of wish forms need reviewing against the will, not in isolation. We are finding plenty that contradict each other.

HMRC has said further secondary legislation and guidance will follow ahead of April 2027, so this is not the final word.

Happy to discuss a case in confidence. Link to the technical note in the comments.

General information only - not advice on your circumstances.

Six months tomorrow. On 6 April 2027, unused pension funds come into the inheritance tax net.Six months sounds comfortab...
05/10/2026

Six months tomorrow. On 6 April 2027, unused pension funds come into the inheritance tax net.

Six months sounds comfortable. It is not, for a straightforward reason: the useful options take time to run. Establishing what is actually in an estate takes weeks. Changing a will takes weeks. Restructuring how a business is held takes months. And any plan built around lifetime gifts needs 7 years to work fully - a clock that does not start until the gift is made.

What is worth doing between now and Christmas, in order:

• Add your pension to the estate valuation and see whether the total crosses £325,000 each, or £500,000 each where a main residence passes to children or grandchildren.

• Check who is nominated to receive your pension death benefits, and when you last looked.

• Check the will says what you want it to say, now that the pension forms part of the picture.

• Work out where the cash to pay any tax would come from.

The budget on 28 October may change other things. It will not change this one - the pension rules are already law.

Link in comments.

General information only - not advice on your circumstances. Correct as at October 2026.

Most people choose an executor and never tell them what it involves.It is usually a spouse, an adult child, sometimes a ...
02/10/2026

Most people choose an executor and never tell them what it involves.

It is usually a spouse, an adult child, sometimes a friend. The conversation, if it happens at all, is roughly: “you’re the executor” - and then nothing for 20 years.

What they are actually agreeing to: valuing an estate, tracking down every account and policy, working out the inheritance tax, paying it before probate is granted, dealing with HMRC, and distributing what is left without falling out with anybody. Personal liability attaches to getting it wrong.

And from April 2027 it gets heavier. Unused pension funds come into the inheritance tax estate, and it is the personal representatives - your executors - who will be responsible for reporting and paying that tax. They will need information from pension schemes they have never dealt with, on a deadline.

Three things worth doing this month, none of which take long:

• Tell them. Actually tell them, and check they are willing.

• Leave a list. Accounts, policies, pensions, the name of your accountant, where the will is kept.

• Consider whether one person alone is the right answer, or whether a professional alongside them would be fairer to everybody.

A good will makes the decisions. A briefed executor makes them happen.

Link in the comments.

General information only - not advice on your circumstances.

Four questions worth asking before April 2027 – and one date worth putting in the diary.1. If my pension were counted in...
28/09/2026

Four questions worth asking before April 2027 – and one date worth putting in the diary.

1. If my pension were counted in my estate today, would my estate face inheritance tax? Many people who confidently answer no have not done the sum with the pension included.

2. Who is currently nominated to receive my pension death benefits, and when did I last check?

3. Does my will still do what I intend, now that the pension forms part of the picture?

4. If tax were payable, where would the cash come from – without forcing a sale?

Question four is the one that catches families out. Inheritance tax falls due before probate completes. An estate can be wealthy on paper and still leaves the family scrambling.

The date: the Budget is on 28 October. Speculation will build over the next month, and some of it will be wrong. The sensible response is not to guess what might change but to know your own position well enough to act calmly if it does – because gifts cannot be recalled and assets settled into trust cannot simply be taken back.

A lifetime of work deserves to become a legacy, not an avoidable tax bill. There is time to plan properly. There is less time than people think.

0118 934 7920 • General information only – not advice on your circumstances.

The liquidity problem, which is the one that actually catches business owners out.Inheritance tax is generally due by th...
25/09/2026

The liquidity problem, which is the one that actually catches business owners out.

Inheritance tax is generally due by the end of the sixth month after death. Probate usually is not granted until at least some of it has been paid. So executors can find themselves needing to pay tax on an estate they do not yet legally control.

For families whose wealth is in a trading company, farmland or property, that is not a forced-sale problem – selling a business property quickly, in a hurry, with a deadline that the buyer can see.

There are routes through it. Inheritance tax on qualifying business and agricultural property can now be paid over ten years, interest-free. Under the direct payment scheme, tax can be paid directly from the deceased's bank accounts. Executors' loans exist. And life cover written into trust pays out immediately and outside the estate, which is often the simplest answer of all.

But every one of those needs arranging in advance. None of them can be organised in month five.

If your estate is asset-rich and cash-light, the question worth asking is not what the tax bill will be. It is where the cash comes from.

0118 934 7920 • General information only – not advice on your circumstances.

Most people have heard that pensions will be subject to inheritance tax from April 2027.Far fewer have noticed that two ...
21/09/2026

Most people have heard that pensions will be subject to inheritance tax from April 2027.

Far fewer have noticed that two charges can land on the same pot.

From April 2027:
• Inheritance tax applies at the estate level, because the unused fund now counts towards the estate.

• Income tax then applies to the beneficiary, at their own marginal rate, on money drawn from an inherited pension where death occurred after age 75.

For a higher-rate beneficiary, the combined effect can take a substantial share of the fund.

Which makes three things newly important: nomination decisions, the order in which assets are drawn, and where the pension holder sits relative to age 75.

If a significant pension forms part of your estate, this is a conversation for well before 2027 – not the spring of it.

0118 934 7920 • link in comments.

General information only - not advice on your circumstances. Correct as at September 2026.

Twenty-six reviews, all five stars. We don't usually make much of them, but this one is worth noting what sat behind it....
18/09/2026

Twenty-six reviews, all five stars. We don't usually make much of them, but this one is worth noting what sat behind it.

"I chose Wills, Tax & Trusts based on recommendation from my accountants. Services it provided included updated wills, LPA, financial advice on investments and creating a family trust. Wills, Tax & Trusts took the time to understand our aspirations for our family and parents. They guided us through the pitfalls and proposed detailed options for us to consider. We are very satisfied." - Janet.

Without any client details: in a case like this, the work is rarely the document. It is establishing what the family actually wants to happen, finding the assets nobody had listed, working out where the tax would fall and – most importantly – where the cash to pay it would come from.

The paperwork is the last twenty per cent.

If you would like to talk to someone about your own position: 0118 934 7920.

We hear this often. Sometimes it has worked exactly as intended. Sometimes it has not, and the family only finds out whe...
14/09/2026

We hear this often. Sometimes it has worked exactly as intended. Sometimes it has not, and the family only finds out when it is far too late to change.

Property trusts fail for recognisable reasons. The wrong type of trust for the objective. Paperwork was signed, but the property was never actually transferred at the Land Registry. A structure set up to address care fees creates an inheritance tax problem instead. Trustees who do not know they are trustees, or do not know what that requires of them. A ten-year anniversary charge nobody diarised.

The pattern is almost always the same: a structure sold as a solution, put in a drawer, and never revisited as the family's circumstances and the legislation moved on around it.

If you have a trust and cannot confidently say what it does, who the trustees are, and whether it still fits your situation – that is worth an hour of someone's time.

Our case study on how property trusts go wrong is on the website – link in the comments.

General information only - not advice on your circumstances.

For the accountants, advisers and solicitors following this page.Five signs the estate in front of you needs specialist ...
11/09/2026

For the accountants, advisers and solicitors following this page.

Five signs the estate in front of you needs specialist input:

1. A trading business or farm worth more than £2.5 million. Since 6 April 2026, the combined business and agricultural property relief allowance is capped at £2.5 million per person, with relief dropping to 50% above it – an effective 20% charge on the excess. Unused allowance can pass to a surviving spouse, so a couple has up to £5 million, but above that the arithmetic changes sharply.

2. An AIM portfolio. Shares on markets designated as "not listed" now attract 50% relief in all circumstances, with no allowance applied first.

3. Significant SIPP or SSAS balances, with April 2027 approaching.

4. An illiquid estate – property-heavy, cash-light. The tax falls due before the assets can be sold.

5. A blended family, or a beneficiary who is vulnerable or should not receive capital outright. And trusts already in place that nobody has reviewed in years.

We work as a technical resource, either white-label or co-branded. Your relationship stays yours – once implementation is done, the client returns to you. We do not compete for ongoing financial planning or investment management.

Ray's book Pension Paradigm was written for advisers navigating the 2027 reforms. Chapter 2 is available to download, and we will send the full book to advisers on request.

Happy to discuss a case in confidence: 0118 934 7920.

Address

3 Trinity Court, Molly Millars Lane
Hurst
RG412PY

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 3:30pm

Telephone

+441189347920

Website

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