Passing wealth well

Intergenerational planning

Many of our client relationships now span more than one generation. In our experience, the transfers that go well are the ones planned while choices are still widest, long before events force decisions. We help families think through what they want their wealth to do, for whom, and in what order, and then keep the plan under review as circumstances and legislation change.

Inheritance tax, with open eyes

Inheritance tax is charged at a headline rate of 40% on estates above the available allowances, and it is frequently the largest single cost a family will face on death. The detail (thresholds, reliefs and exemptions) changes as governments change. We do not build plans around any one set of rules; we plan around the fact that rules change, keeping arrangements flexible and reviewing them regularly. Sensible planning may reduce the eventual liability, but nothing we arrange depends on the tax landscape standing still.

Trusts and gifting, at a high level

Lifetime gifts, whether outright or staged, remain among the simplest planning tools available. Trusts can add control over timing and circumstance, useful where beneficiaries are young, or where wealth should support several generations. Both involve trade-offs of access, control and tax treatment that need to be weighed carefully against your own security.

Charlwood Wealth does not provide legal advice. Where trusts or estate documents are needed, we work alongside your solicitor, or introduce you to one, so that the legal structure and the financial plan are designed together rather than in isolation.

Involving the next generation early

Wealth passes more smoothly to people who are prepared for it. We encourage clients to bring children and grandchildren into the conversation earlier than feels natural: first to understand the intentions behind the plan, and in time to build their own relationship with the people managing it.

Where it helps, we arrange and chair family meetings: a structured, neutral setting in which intentions can be explained, questions asked, and misunderstandings resolved while everyone is in the same room.

A home for both generations

Because relationships here are managed by teams rather than a single adviser, the next generation does not inherit a stranger. Many of the families we serve began with one generation and now include two or three, each with their own objectives, and each advised in their own right.