Over time property that you plan to leave to your family and friends should grow in value. Shares, savings accounts, antiques, and your home should be worth more in ten or twenty years’ time than today.
Most investment experts work on the assumption that an estate with a mix of all the above will grow in value by about 5% a year. Such growth should help your estate keep in pace with inflation, but it may move it worryingly close to the threshold above which inheritance tax is due.
The Government has raised the threshold in recent years but not by enough to keep pace with the amount people’s estates are growing at – largely due to house price increases. As a result, more and more people are finding that they have to pay the tax.
Keep an eye on your will to ensure it’s up-to-date.
Some of your property, such as your car, electrical and household goods, is likely to reduce in value over time.
If you give away an asset, for inheritance tax purposes it is priced on the date the gift was made, not the date of death.
Be warned that not all your investments will perform well – in fact, some may turn out to lose you money. Check how each of your investments is doing at least once a year. Otherwise, you might find that one loved one inherits a runaway success while another gets the shares in a dot.com company that sank without a trace. You may well want to change your will in order to distribute your property more fairly, if one of your investments bombs out.
Shrinking Assets: Looking at what eats into your estate
In the perfect world you write your will, sit back, and watch the value of your estate grow over time. But life might surprise you when you least expect it and your estate could suffer some serious shrinkage.
Lots of factors can contribute to making you poorer. The most common include:
Losing your job. If you can’t work due to ill health or redundancy you are likely to have to dip into your savings to pay the household bills.
Being taken into a nursing home. In England and Wales local authorities can ask you to sell some of your possessions to pay for the cost of any nursing home care they provide.
Being sued. During recent times the incidents of one member of the public suing another has increased sharply, as people have used no-win no-fee law firms
You can buy insurance to cover nursing home fees, periods of unemployment, and even costs associated with being sued. If you want to know more about these types of insurance, talk to an independent financial adviser.
The possibility of estate shrinkage is another good reason to review the contents of your will at least once a year. If you get poorer, you will have to reduce what you leave behind.