The news that (allegedly) the deceased Duke of Westminster’s Estate (the Grosvenor Estate) will largely be passed on with no Inheritance Tax payable has created a furore, to say the least!

The figures involved are staggering; estimates of an Estate Value of somewhere around £9-£12 Billion suggest that a strict interpretation of IHT rules and rates means the tax saving could be somewhere between £3.5 Billion and £4.8 Billion.

The absolute figure is superfluous and secondary to the main point of this article: how has this been achieved and is there one rule for the rich and one for everyone else?

The answers to these questions are important ones for you to consider if you have assets and wealth.

The first answer is that it is believed the Duke’s wealth, his Estate, was held in a trust or series of trusts.

Complicated, contentious trusts? We have no idea of the detail but it is likely the answer is, no to both. The trusts were probably relatively simple mechanisms using legitimate and established UK laws around property and asset ownership.

The second answer is that the trusts used were almost certainly ones available to anyone, anywhere.

What is more curious is why trusts are not used more widely by a greater proportion of the population?

If the total amount in Inheritance Tax collected by HM Treasury from all UK Estates is around £4.7 Billion (per year), with about 20,000 Estates affected, then this tells us that the people getting the hardest hit are the ones with Estates ranging from £1 Million – £2 Million.