To protect your kids If you have no will and you and your partner die, who would look after the children? People assume grandparents or their own brothers and sisters (the kid’s uncles and aunties). However, this is wrong – the kids become wards of court and the authorities will decide what happens. Sometimes they can go in to care whilst a decision is being…

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…

Are parents liable to be financially affected by the divorce of one or more of their children? Some of the latest official statistics on divorce in the UK make for interesting reading, perhaps not just for those directly affected too. Here are two to focus on; First off the latest available numbers suggest that around 42% of all marriages end in divorce. Second the average…