Category Archives: Insight Article

A private client solicitor must possess specialist client care skills to effectively advise and support older and vulnerable clients. Vulnerability can arise from physical disability, cognitive impairment, bereavement, emotional dependence, or difficulty managing finances. In such cases, solicitors must be vigilant, compassionate, and proactive in safeguarding their clients’ best interests and assessing capacity.

How a solicitor engages with a vulnerable client and protects their interests is critical. Recognising red flags—such as undue influence, coercion, or emotional pressure—is a key part of the role. Solicitors often act as safeguards, preventing clients from making decisions under pressure, such as gifting property or transferring significant assets.

It is vital to instruct a solicitor whose focus is firmly on delivering and evidencing high-quality services and communications to vulnerable clients. Legal advice based solely on technical skills is no longer sufficient. Today, solicitors must also navigate the private client process with empathy, patience, and a deep understanding of each client’s unique needs.

Why capacity matters

Solicitors must comply with the principles set out in the Mental Capacity Act 2005. Every adult has the right to make their own decisions unless it can be clearly shown that they lack the capacity to do so. Solicitors must provide clients with as much support as possible to help them make informed choices.

They must also recognise that making an unwise decision does not automatically mean a person lacks capacity. However, if a person is found to lack capacity, any decision or action taken on their behalf must be in their best interests.

It’s important to note that capacity can be temporary, partial, or fluctuate over time. A client might lack capacity for one decision—such as making a lifetime gift—but still have capacity for another.

Legal compliance and best practice

Solicitors must assess a client’s capacity at the time a significant decision, such as a financial arrangement or a change to a will, is being made. The assessment must focus solely on the client’s ability to make that specific decision, in line with the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

Identifying impaired capacity isn’t always straightforward. Cognitive disabilities may not be apparent during initial meetings, as clients can appear fully capable. In some cases, capacity concerns only emerge through detailed examination and, where needed, input from a medical expert.

Capacity is a complex area of law. If you or someone you care about needs trusted legal support, contact Charlotte Barbaroussis at West End law firm RIAA Barker Gillette (UK). With extensive experience in this sensitive area, Charlotte provides thoughtful, professional guidance tailored to the needs of older and vulnerable clients.

Note: This article is not legal advice; it provides information of general interest about current legal issues.

The Autumn Budget 2024 introduced some unexpected provisions regarding Inheritance Tax (IHT) that have wide-ranging implications for those whose estates are likely to be subject to IHT following their death. Inheritance Tax is payable on an estate with a net value of more than £325,000. The government charges any estate above that figure at a flat rate of 40%. There are, of course, exemptions. For example, no IHT liability for transfers between spouses and civil partners exists. However, leaving your entire estate to your spouse or civil partner might be stoking up a future IHT liability. This article will discuss the options available through lifetime gifting to minimise your exposure to Inheritance Tax. But before we look at estate planning, we must consider the changes introduced in the Autumn Budget 2024.

What changes did the Autumn Budget 2024 introduce?

Four key changes in the Autumn Budget 2024 impacted Inheritance Tax.

Freeze on nil-rate band

The nil-rate band of £325,000, below which you do not pay IHT, has been frozen until 2030. The previous government had already frozen this figure until 2028. The Chancellor’s Autumn Budget 2024 extended that freeze until 2030. That means if your net estate is over £325,000, it will be subject to IHT.

Unused pensions to be subject to IHT from April 2027

The Autumn Budget 2024 introduced a new rule regarding unused pensions. Currently, unused pension funds fall outside the estate for IHT purposes. That means they do not count as part of the estate and are not subject to IHT. Some people who did not need to rely on their pension earmarked it for distribution to others after their death as it was held outside their estate and not subject to IHT.

However, from 2027, any unused pension fund will be subject to IHT as part of the estate. The government has launched a technical consultation to determine how this will work in practice.

Agriculture and Business Property Relief changes

Farmers and businesses are entitled to 100% relief on their business assets, which means these assets are not subject to IHT. However, starting in April 2026, any agricultural or business assets over £1 million will be subject to IHT at a reduced rate of 50% of the current rate. That means IHT will be charged on those assets over £1 million at a rate of 20%.

Residency-based IHT for former “non-doms”

The Autumn Budget 2024 abolished the “non-dom” status and introduced a residence-based taxation system. Under the new rules, the government will classify a foreign national who has resided in the UK for at least 10 out of 20 tax years as a “long-term resident.” Once this status has been established, their worldwide assets become subject to UK Inheritance Tax (IHT). Previously, such individuals could exclude foreign assets from IHT calculations. The changes also impact offshore trusts: assets placed into an offshore trust while the individual held non-dom status may now be included in their estate for IHT purposes.

Using lifetime gifting to reduce your exposure to Inheritance Tax

Estate planning always considers lifetime giving as part of mitigating against IHT. When you dispose of assets through gifting, you can reduce your exposure to IHT. However, there are certain conditions you must fulfil if your estate is to avoid paying IHT.

Taper Relief (the 7-year rule)

If you gift property, assets or investments more than seven years before you die, these will no longer be considered part of your estate. All such gifts are considered potentially exempt transfers because they must meet specific criteria to be excluded from IHT calculations.

Potentially exempt transfers

HMRC define a potentially exempt transfer as a lifetime transfer of value that satisfies three conditions:

• It is a transfer by an individual made on or after 18 March 1986
• It would be a chargeable transfer apart from Section 3a of the Inheritance Tax Act 1984  (or, if only partly chargeable, is a potentially exempt transfer to the extent that it would be chargeable), and
• It is a gift to another individual or a specified trust.

These conditions mean that the transfer must be for value to an individual or a specified trust where the transfer would be subject to IHT. Transfers between spouses do not count because they are exempt from IHT.

If the gift donor survives over seven years, the gift’s value falls outside the estate and is not subject to IHT. However, the donor must divest themselves of the gift entirely.

Gifts with reservations

Gifts with reservations occur when the gift donor makes the gift but retains an interest in it or benefits from it. A good example of this is when a parent transfers ownership of the family home to the children but remains living in it rent-free. While the donor has made a gift of the ownership, the donor benefits from the gifted property by continuing to live in it. In such circumstances, HMRC would include the house’s value in the estate for IHT purposes.

Additional gift exemptions

There are also annual gift exemptions that everyone enjoys. You can make annual gifts totalling £3,000 to anyone you want. If a child is getting married, you can give them a gift of £5,000. You can also make a wedding gift of £2,500 to a grandchild and £1,000 to anyone else. In addition, you can make as many small gifts of £250 as you like.

Gifts to charities

Any gift you make to charity is exempt from IHT. This rule applies during your lifetime and on death. In addition, if you leave 10% or more of your estate to charity, the rate of IHT your estate will pay will be reduced from 40% to 36%. So, charity gifting can lead to substantial savings in very large estates.

Estate Planning following the Autumn Budget 2024

The overall rules about making gifts have not changed. However, the budget brought assets into the estate that previously were outside it and not subject to IHT.

Your tactics may need to change to address this. Regular lifetime giving, provided it is not a gift with reservations, remains the most straightforward way of reducing the value of your estate.

If you have an unused pension, depending on your personal tax situation, it may be beneficial to withdraw some of the funds and gift them to others. The withdrawal would still be subject to an immediate income tax charge but might be IHT-efficient.

Dealing with the changes to agricultural and business property relief can be challenging as these are integral assets for your business. You will need to consider family involvement in the business and the basis of ownership of the assets. If you transfer ownership but continue in the business, HMRC will likely view this as a gift with reservations.

The UK government claims that reliefs available for agricultural and business property can total up to £3 million. However, this level of relief is only attainable in specific, limited circumstances.

Seek legal and financial advice before doing anything

Whatever you do, you must take legal and financial advice if you intend to take steps to mitigate your IHT exposure. Failure to carry out any estate planning and lifetime giving correctly can lead to HMRC adding the value of property, assets, and investments back into your estate’s value and subject to IHT.

The landscape of Inheritance Tax and lifetime gifting is evolving. To understand how these changes affect you and to explore bespoke strategies for lifetime gifting and estate planning, contact James McMullan today for expert legal and financial advice.

Note: This article is not legal advice; it provides information of general interest about current legal issues.

Making a will is one of the most important steps anyone can take to protect their estate. But with the rise of messaging apps, many ask: can you make a WhatsApp will? In England and Wales, the law governing valid wills remains rooted in the Wills Act 1837, long before smartphones came into existence. Below, we unpack the key legal requirements for making a will, how digital tools fit in, and whether a WhatsApp will might ever be recognised.

What makes a will valid?

Under the Wills Act 1837, a valid will must satisfy four critical requirements:

Age and capacity

• The testator must be at least 18 years old.
• The testator must be of sound mind and mental capacity.

Written document

• The will must be in writing, and the testator must sign it (or, in certain circumstances, it can be signed by another person in the testator’s presence).

Witnessing formalities

• The testator must sign the will in the presence of two witnesses or acknowledge their signature in the presence of two witnesses.
• Those two witnesses must sign the will in the testator’s presence.

These key ingredients are impossible to replicate in a digital world, not least WhatsApp.

Digital adaptations and remote witnessing

During the COVID-19 lockdown, emergency legislation allowed wills to be witnessed via video link—an important step toward modernising wills law. Yet this change still requires a written document signed on paper; the witnessing conducted remotely simply alleviates in-person constraints.

The Law Commission’s electronic wills initiative

Since 2017, the Law Commission has explored electronic wills, pausing its consultation between 2019–2022 and resuming it in October 2023. The goal is to design a framework that:

• Allows fully digital will execution
• Preserves safeguards against fraud
• Potentially introduces a new Wills Act for electronic wills

The consultation closed in December 2023, and as of today, no legislation has formally legalised pure WhatsApp will execution.

Will WhatsApp wills ever be valid?

At present, there’s no indication that a WhatsApp will—a chat message chain—could satisfy statutory requirements because of:

• Fragmentation: WhatsApp threads lack a single, immutable document.
• Deletion Settings: Chats can auto-delete, undermining document permanence.
• Authentication & Witnessing: No reliable built-in method to witness or authenticate signatures.

Until new electronic-wills legislation passes, traditional or hybrid (paper signed and video-witnessed) methods remain the only way to ensure validity.

For tailored advice on electronic wills, remote witnessing, or updating your estate planning in the digital age, contact James McMullan at RIAA Barker Gillette (UK) LLP. He can guide you through current requirements.

Note: This article is not legal advice; it provides information of general interest about current legal issues.