Setting up and Structuring Trusts to Protect Business and Property Wealth

A superbly informative and friendly evening co-hosted with our friends at Smythe House Limited yesterday 🍷 🧀 , examining ways to structure business assets before a sale.

So often, when a business is progressing towards a sale, the focus is on valuation and completion, and considerations around how to protect the asset realised are left as an afterthought.

The message rang loud and clear: when moving capital from a business to a personal portfolio, it should be planned carefully, and most importantly, in advance.

While rumours abound around rises to IHT and CGT in November’s Budget, and we're seeing some business sales racing to complete ahead of time, little will be clarified until the Chancellor speaks.

There is, however, planning to be done:

🔸 Pensions and death benefits will be subject to IHT in April 2027.

🔸 Various trust structures can help spread business assets across a family. Freezer shares offer a potential option.

🔸 Serious consideration needs to be given to planning for if a business owner or major shareholder dies in service.

🔸 Shareholdings held in private companies will come under IHT at 20% from April 2026. This will cause a major headache for businesses at all stages of maturity as the shareholding will most likely need to be sold to release capital for IHT. Leaving businesses exposed to predatory valuations and restructurings.

🔸 While HMRC grants some leniency over the timeframe of IHT payments, in some instances up to 10 years, the interest is now around 8% and punitive.

🔸 Debate also covered roll-over and deferral relief, assessing the effectiveness of SEIS and EIS schemes.

🙏 Thank you again to Smythe House for such a great evening and in particular to kelly morgan and Adam Young.

Thank you all for coming, and if you need more support or advice on any of the above matters, do reach out to us.