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Kingsley Napley’s Medical Negligence Team ‘walks together’ with the Dame Vera Lynn Children’s Charity
Sharon Burkill
Over the years, I’ve encountered many couples in a relationship spanning 20 years or more, often with children together, who have never married nor have any intention of doing so. When challenged as to reasons for not marrying, there’s rarely expressed any aversion to marriage in principle. It’s just, “We’re happy as we are; we don’t need a piece of paper to prove the strength of our relationship”.
Sibling concern over equal treatment can linger well into middle age and beyond; it reveals itself after a parent’s death or during their old age through arguments over who has had what and who’s going to get what. We’re not legally obliged to leave our estate to our children in equal shares or, indeed to leave them anything at all.
Saving Inheritance Tax (IHT) on death by making a gift and surviving by seven years is standard tax planning sanctioned by statute. However, if you make a gift but ‘reserve a benefit’ in the property given, it will still be brought into charge on death, regardless of how long you survive.
Sharon Burkill
Natalie Cohen
Caroline Sheldon
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