Citywealth Quick Insight Series on Tax Trends – Anna Warren, Bentley Reid
This week’s Citywealth Quick Insight Series on Tax Trends is dedicated to Anna Warren, Tax Director at Bentley Reid, financial planning, tax advice, and investment management.
How would you summarise the current tax environment for UHNW individuals and families in the UK?
In one word – complicated. We have seen a number of fundamental changes over the last 10 years relating particularly to foreign UNHW individuals, which means navigating the changes brings a lot of complexity. However, the new regime is arguably simpler, so for new UNHW’s coming to the UK their affairs going forward should be simpler.
How is succession and estate planning being impacted by new inheritance, wealth, or exit tax proposals?
With all the changes that have been introduced, options have become more limited and ultimately there has been a huge increase in the attractiveness of life insurance as a way for individuals and families to manage their inheritance tax burden.
Which recent UK tax policy change has had the most significant implications for estate planning?
Where to start! The changes from domicile to long-term residency and the changes to APR/BPR have all had significant impacts on estate planning. The former has had a significant impact on the attractiveness of long-term trusts for non-domiciled individuals in the UK. The latter, as the headlines have shown, have had a significant impact on the farming community. In addition, this has made slightly riskier BPR qualifying investments less attractive and again may push individuals towards simpler planning options such as gifting and/or life insurance.
How are advisers helping clients prepare for these challenges?
Understanding individual desires and needs remains essential to creating an effective succession and estate plan for clients.
What is the question you get asked the most by clients?
The specific questions vary depending on the individuals, but ultimately most clients are looking for a tax-efficient estate plan that doesn’t necessarily require them to simple gift large sums of money.
How are clients adjusting their estates in light of all the recent changes?
This depends again on a clients individual circumstances, but the biggest change has probably been the level of life insurance now used in planning.
What role do tax-efficient investments play in your clients’ strategies, and are these evolving?
This can play a huge role in a client’s strategy, and these can change over time. For example, now under the 4-year FIG regime it makes no sense to invest in UK situs assets, but after the 4-years, then clients might look to use an offshore insurance bond (OIB) as an income tax deferral. With that comes a change in approach, whereby they may have been able to choose their individual investments before, an OIB comes with restrictions on the level of control an individual can have and what they might be able to invest in.
What is the one thing you would encourage all UHNW clients to do now?
With all the changes that have come in, if they haven’t done so already, I would suggest that they obtain advice and take stock of their strategy to see if it is still fit for purpose.
Looking forward, what are your top predictions or concerns about the future direction of UK tax policy for UHNW clients over the next 12–24 months?
I am hopeful that there won’t be any significant changes in the next 12-24 months, the changes of the last 12-24 months have been huge, what is needed now is a period of calm. Albeit, if there were positive changes, such as an increase in the number of years for the FIG regime, that would go down well with clients!
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