Lootman wrote:If legal you can also marry your beneficiary, which would make IHT go away as well.
I've often thought there's a market for introducing single young people to aged and dying ones solely with a view to them getting hitched and thereby avoiding IHT altogether.
The idea came to me when an 83 year old client worth several mill decided to get married just for that reason. He married a former secretary who was, I think, in her early fifties.
It was quite funny, as we'd discussed it in a meeting, and he rang me just a couple of days later to tell me he was engaged. He asked me where was the quickest place to wed, as he didn't want to wait the statutory several week period that applies here. My first instinct was Nevada, but he didn't want to travel that far, so I did some research and came up with either Denmark or GIbraltar, in both of which countries you can marry the same day you arrive.
He liked the sound of Gib, so the next task he gave me was to try and organise it for him, as his computer skills were limited - a novel job, but as he was happy to pay for my time I agreed.
Fortunately, I discovered that you can buy a package deal wedding for a few thousand quid. He coughed up and the job was done!
This was about two years ago, and he's still going strong, so maybe a late marriage is beneficial to one's health.
Of course there is, on the face of it, a high risk that when he drops off his perch wifey will re-marry and/or that the wealth will pass out of his family. I'd therefore suggested various ways of avoiding this, but it didn't bother him as he took the view that his kids were rich enough anyway.
I was a bit annoyed with myself afterwards though, as it occurred to me that I could have married him, and solved my pension worries at a stroke!
But going back to the original idea, it could be a very lucrative exercise for all concerned, bearing in mind the huge sums that could be saved. The `marriage fee' could be based on a percentage of the tax saved, but as the savings in even a fairly modest estate could be into 6 figures it would be quite possible for the young person to `earn' enough to pay off their student loan.
And I'm sure the transfer of assets could be adequately protected by trusts etc, the idea being that the young person would give the assets away to the people chosen by the deceased and then survive 7 years to eliminate the IHT.
Remember, you saw it here first!