Inheritance tax is charged at 40% on whatever you leave above your allowances, yet it is one of the most avoidable taxes in the UK. Planning is about using every nil-rate band, gift and relief you are entitled to, so more of your estate reaches the people you choose and less goes to HMRC.
What inheritance tax planning actually involves
It begins with understanding your IHT position: adding up your home, savings, investments, pensions and life policies, then subtracting the allowances that apply to you. Everyone has a £325,000 nil-rate band. Leave your main home to children or grandchildren and a £175,000 residence nil-rate band sits on top. Both are frozen until 2030. A married couple or civil partners can transfer unused allowances between them, so up to £1m can pass tax-free, but 40% is charged on everything above.
From there, an adviser works the levers that reduce what is taxed: gifting within the seven-year rule, trusts that move assets out of your estate while keeping some control, Business Relief on qualifying trading assets, and life cover written in trust to pay a future bill without adding to the estate. Our inheritance tax guides explain each in depth; the job of advice is deciding which combination fits your family.
The allowances, and how the bands work
How an estate is taxed in 2026/27
| Element | Amount / rule |
|---|---|
| Nil-rate band | £325,000 per person (frozen to 2030) |
| Residence nil-rate band | £175,000, if the home passes to direct descendants |
| Couple’s combined allowances | Up to £1,000,000 by transfer between spouses |
| Rate above allowances | 40% (36% if 10%+ of the estate goes to charity) |
| Taper on large estates | Residence band withdrawn £1 for every £2 over £2,000,000 |
Gifts sit alongside the bands. An outright gift leaves your estate completely once you survive it by seven years. Die sooner and it may still be taxed, though taper relief reduces the charge on gifts above the nil-rate band on a sliding scale from the third year onward. Business Relief is a separate and powerful tool: from April 2026 it gives 100% relief on the first £1m of qualifying business assets and 50% above that. Getting these to work together, in the right order, is where an adviser earns their fee.
Who needs advice, and who doesn’t
If your whole estate sits comfortably below your combined allowances, you may need nothing more than a well-drafted will, plenty of estates owe nothing at all. Anything left to a spouse or civil partner is exempt regardless of size, so many couples face no bill on the first death. Honesty matters here: paying for planning you do not need is its own kind of waste.
One change deserves real attention. From April 2027 unused pension pots are expected to fall within inheritance tax. For years the standard advice was to spend other savings first and leave the pension untouched, because it passed on free of IHT. That logic reverses. The order in which you draw income in retirement now has estate consequences, and revisiting your drawdown plan before 2027 is one of the clearest reasons to take advice.
You may not need an adviser if
- Your estate is below your combined allowances
- Everything passes to a spouse or civil partner
- Your affairs are simple and a will covers your wishes
- You have no business, farm or trust assets
Advice earns its fee when
- Your estate tops £2m and the taper starts to bite
- You hold a business or farm and want Business Relief to apply
- You want to gift but are unsure of the seven-year exposure
- Pensions, trusts or a blended family complicate the picture
What it costs, and how we are paid
Some IHT work is a one-off, a gifting strategy, setting up a trust, or arranging life cover in trust, and is often charged as a fixed fee. Where investments are managed alongside, initial advice is commonly 1%–3% and ongoing advice 0.5%–1% a year. Ask any firm to put its fees in writing before you commit, and to show what the ongoing charge buys.
Vetted Wealth itself is free to you. We are an introducer, not an adviser: we give information and connect you with a regulated firm, and the firm pays us, never you. That keeps our guidance straight, because you are not the one being billed for the match.
How we vet the advisers we introduce
Every firm we introduce is authorised and regulated by the FCA, with a clean regulatory record and genuine experience of estate and inheritance planning, not a general adviser dabbling in it. We check permissions, complaints history and qualifications before any introduction. If you would rather start local, browse vetted specialists across Devon and Cornwall, or read how we vet advisers in full.
Key takeaways
- The nil-rate band is £325,000, plus £175,000 for a home left to descendants, up to £1m for a couple, all frozen to 2030.
- Above your allowances the rate is 40%; over £2m the residence band tapers away.
- Gifts leave your estate after seven years, with taper relief easing the charge from year three.
- Business Relief gives 100% on the first £1m of qualifying assets from April 2026, 50% above.
- From April 2027 pensions count for IHT, so the old “spend other assets first” rule may no longer hold.
Where we operate
Vetted Wealth is live across Devon and Cornwall, with further counties opening through 2026. Choose your county to see the towns we cover and the advisers we have vetted there.
Most people start on their county page and then pick their town. If you would rather skip that, use the form on this page, tell us where you are and we will match you with a vetted inheritance tax planning specialist near you.
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