“Broadly speaking, this is a voluntary tax for people who distrust their heirs more than they dislike the Inland Revenue” Roy Jenkins, Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1976.

Despite the changes to IHT legislation in the 2007 Pre Budget Report, there is still a need for advice in this area. Clients often put off making provision, placing IHT planning alongside not making a will, for fear of tempting fate and invoking an early demise.

However, with careful positioning, Clarity assists an adviser to better educate the client as to the relatively easy and inexpensive methods of ensuring a greater proportion of their hard-earned wealth is inherited by their chosen beneficiaries.

Clarity employs a simple pie chart to depict the percentage of the estate that the State will claim if no action is taken. If this is insufficient to convince the client to act, there is also a “cheque” to show the amount the beneficiaries will have to pay!

Finally, Clarity provides a superb calculator to show that even with the doubling of the nil-rate band, advanced IHT mitigation methods like discretionary trusts still have a valuable part to play.