Thoughts on the important matters affecting our clients

Final salary members, especially doctors, have been a political focus. Most people like to be paid to go to work; relatively few are prepared to work for nothing and still fewer are prepared to accept a promotion and end up writing a cheque to HMRC in return for some extra pension which will be super-taxed again. The core problem was both the annual allowance and the LTA: removing one certainly helps. The inability to separate the pension arrangement from earnings is a connected problem: if you retire from the NHS and rejoin the same job as a pensioner, you lose all sorts of elements of pay awards.  

There are few subjects which divide families as much as the introduction of outsiders into the family, and when a gentleman falls to one knee to propose, if he is – or more often his family are - simultaneously planning how cheaply they can get rid of the gold-digger bride when the marriage fails, the romance may stutter: this speaks to the deepest fears of the whole enterprise.

The simplest strategy is giving all your money away well (currently 7 years) before you die, but this runs the risk that you might run out yourselves. Estate planning involves organising that as much as possible of your estate goes as you wish but as only part of your overall objectives. This includes reducing the amount paid to undesirables including not only the Chancellor but also local Government (care fees), and your children’s ex-spouses on divorce.

Clients often ask the same questions, so here is a Noddy’s guide to this area. It is not advice, and nothing beats going to a competent lawyer.

There are many interconnected areas here, and some simple (as well as some not so simple) considerations. I concentrate on first property purchase, but clients will have different ideas of how much to help, at what age and in what form (gift/loan).