Giving away your hard-earned cash and placing it in the hands of your children or grandchildren is always a nerve-racking business.
You’ve worked for that money, so relinquishing control to the next generation is an emotional and practical challenge.
But growing numbers are facing exactly that choice between handing over wealth in their lifetimes or leaving their loved ones facing a big inheritance tax bill – due to a pernicious change to estate planning rules set to come into force next April.
Pension pots, currently exempt from inheritance tax (IHT), will form part of estates from next year. Almost 40,000 will be hit with higher death duties as a result.
It means that many who were hoping to use pensions to pass on wealth are now working quickly to get spare pension money outside of their estate.
