Estate Planning Basics
Plain-English explainers of the law behind the platform's products - independent of the platform itself.
General legal knowledge, written for professionals but without assuming deep prior recall. These pages explain the law itself; for how the platform implements it, see Platform Product.
Pages
Trusts
- Understanding Trusts - A Plain-English Guide - what a trust is, the three basic structures (bare, interest in possession, discretionary), a tax orientation, and every main type of trust used in England & Wales, with a quick-reference table and glossary.
Inheritance tax
- Inheritance Tax - An Overview - the hub page: what IHT is, the rates and bands, lifetime gifts and the 7-year rule, how trusts are taxed, the main reliefs, and how it is reported and paid.
- The Nil-Rate Band & Transferable Nil-Rate Band - the £325,000 tax-free band, cumulation, and how a surviving spouse inherits the unused percentage.
- The Residence Nil-Rate Band - the extra allowance when a home passes to direct descendants: conditions, the £2m taper, transfer and the downsizing addition.
- Inheritance Tax Exemptions & Reliefs - the spouse and charity exemptions, the lifetime-gift exemptions, and business/agricultural property relief (including the April 2026 changes).
- The Relevant Property Regime - the entry, ten-yearly and exit charges that tax discretionary and other relevant property trusts.
Intestacy & estate administration
- Intestacy - Dying Without a Will - what happens with no valid will, and why the rules differ across the UK. Jurisdiction detail: England & Wales · Scotland · Northern Ireland.
- Executors, Administrators & the Grant of Probate - personal representatives, the grant of representation, and their duties.
- Administering an Estate, Step by Step - the practical process from registering the death to distributing the residue.