Background
House £750,000.
Investments £300k in his name.
Investments £100k in her name.
Pension income – £45k.
Investment income – £10,000 for him £4,000 for her.
Challenges
The Client had children by a previous marriage. He was keen to safeguard the position for his partner. He needed to know that if he died first she could be provided with sufficient income but that eventually his assets would pass to his own family.
He was concerned that he was paying too much tax.
He was concerned that on his death his company pension would reduce by 50% and his wife’s income would suffer.
What We Did
- We arranged for the ownership of the house to be changed into tenants in common.
- We arranged for the wills to be re-written, in each case all the assets passed to the survivor in a trust. The survivor had access to income and loans of capital for life with the funds eventually passing to the children.
- We arranged for £60,000 of his investments to be transferred into the name of his wife.
- We arranged for John to fund a payment of £2,880 per annum as a pension contribution for Ann.
The Results
- As a result of changing the wills John can be confident that his wife will have access to income and capital for life but that on her death his assets will revert to his children.
- By passing £60,000 to Ann, she was able to invest this money and receive gross interest, because she is a non-taxpayer, thus saving £960 of tax.
- By funding a pension for Ann, this will help to make up the shortfall of income on John’s death and also result in tax relief of £720.