AEGON Scottish Equitable launches IHT planning website

Despite concerns about the property market and the economic downturn, IHT is still a major consideration for advisers and clients. It is estimated that in 2007/08, HM Treasury collected £3.8 billion in IHT receipts and, according to recent research by unbiased.co.uk, £1.9 billion of unnecessary IHT was paid last year.

AEGON Scottish Equitable's new website, www.aegonse.co.uk/investments/iht, takes advisers through simple steps designed to highlight opportunities to help reduce the amount of unnecessary IHT payments made by their customers. It has tips including the importance of making a will to maximise an individual's IHT nil rate band, to considering investing in a tax-efficient way to make use of exempt transfers available to them.

In addition, as part of the new development, AEGON Scottish Equitable is launching an interactive trust decision tree. Advisers can use these with their customers to help select the type of trust most suited to their needs. In recent weeks, AEGON Scottish Equitable has seen increasing numbers of advisers using the company's new trust range to minimise their customers' potential IHT exposure.

The website also includes a dedicated customer section with a calculator to help people work out how much of an IHT liability they may have. There are also straightforward explanations on how IHT is calculated and information on the options available to help people to reduce or even remove their IHT liability. This also includes helpful definitions of the different types of trust.

Margaret Jago, Technical Manager for AEGON Scottish Equitable International, said: “With house prices predicted to drop by anything between 15% and 20% by the end of the year, many people may be fooled into false security that their estates will be outside the current nil rate band of £312,000 for 2008/09.

“However, this only takes into account the cost of their property and when all other assets are taken into account we predict many households will be surprised by the value of their estates.”