Inheritance Tax · where to start
A Will makes best use of the allowances available on death. Lifetime planning is the more powerful lever: gifting, asset re-organisation, lifetime trusts, family investment companies. And lifetime incapacity can unstitch the best-laid plan, so LPAs belong in the picture too. There's a path through, and there's a right starting point for you.
If you already know what you're looking for, jump to the four routes. Otherwise, the path is below.
Most people who land here are looking for one product that ‘solves IHT’. It isn't usually one product. It's three layers of planning, applied in the right order for your estate. This is how to think about them.
On death
Every estate has a Nil Rate Band (£325,000). For those leaving a home to direct descendantsChildren, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, step-children, adopted or fostered children, and the spouses or civil partners (including widows and widowers) of any of them., there's also a Residence Nil Rate Band of up to £175,000. A well-drafted Will makes sure both allowances are captured cleanly, that a surviving spouse's allowances aren't lost, and that the structure does the work without active intervention.
What a Will can't do: shrink an estate that's already grown beyond the allowances. For that, you need the next layer.
Across your lifetime
This is where IHT planning earns its keep. Gifting uses the seven-year rule, your annual exemption, and smart use of surplus income. Asset re-organisation moves value into assets that attract reliefs (business, agricultural). Lifetime trusts give you protection and control without ownership. Family investment companies let value grow outside your estate while you keep direction.
The combinations are the work. The right combination depends on your estate, your family, and your timeline.
Against incapacity
If you lose capacity before death, your attorneys make decisions. Without Lasting Powers of Attorney, the Court of Protection appoints a deputy, and the carefully built IHT plan can grind to a halt because no one has authority to continue gifting, restructure assets, or run the family company.
LPAs are the protection layer. They aren't an IHT product, but without them the IHT product doesn't survive.
IHT planning works when these three layers fit together. A great Will inside a shrinking estate isn't enough. Aggressive gifting without LPAs is fragile. A clever lifetime structure without a Will to receive what's left is incomplete. Start with whichever layer is missing for you.
Four ways to take a next step. They aren't mutually exclusive. Most people use more than one as they go.
If you want to read
A plain-English IHT guide covering the allowances, the seven-year rule, the reliefs, the trusts, and the choices behind each. Written by a solicitor, available as a downloadable PDF.
See the IHT guideIf you want to see numbers
Enter your estate roughly, model the outcomes under different Will architectures, and see what each structure would do for your estate. Anonymous and instant.
Open the ModellerIf your estate is shaped by IHT
The advised Wills + LPAs tier that handles IHT planning architecturally: life-interest trust on first death, discretionary trust on second death, NRB and RNRB capture, protection against untransferable reliefs being lost. Fixed price, delivered with a Will-architecture call.
If IHT isn't a concern for your estate, Foundation Essentials is the execution-only entry tier (£1,400 couple / £700 single).
See Strong FoundationsIf you want to talk it through
For estates where the right answer involves lifetime planning, trusts, business or agricultural assets, second marriages, or cross-border elements, a 20-minute call with a solicitor scopes the work.
Book a 20-minute callThe IHT guide goes through the topics most often relevant to estates between £500k and £5m. None of it is advice. It's the conceptual map most people are missing when they first start looking at IHT.
Arvéla is the consumer brand: the guides, the free Estate Modeller, the diagnostic tools, the Wills + LPAs tiers from Foundation Essentials to Strong Foundations. Use it to learn, to model, and to find the right starting point.
When the work crosses into regulated legal advice, such as drafting your Wills, advising on trusts, or structuring lifetime gifts, it is delivered by Arvéla's chosen legal service provider. You'll see the engagement letter before any work or payment starts. See Your Legal Services for current provider details.
Arvéla is a trading name of Cascade Legal Ltd. Read more about how it all fits together.