Blog
The FCA’s Enforcement Watch 2 and what it means for the financial services industry
James Alleyne
6 September 2023
Death of a founder = failure of the business?
Death is a traumatic event for the deceased’s family, friends and those involved in their business. The untimely death of business owner or founder can leave a business in shambles. Combined with a lack of succession planning or inadequate planning this can have significant unintended repercussions. Recent studies suggest that a founding entrepreneur’s death wipes out, on average, 60% of a firm’s sales and cuts jobs by roughly 17%. Also, these companies have a 20% lower survival rate two years after the founder’s death compared to similar firms where the entrepreneur is still alive. A recent Legal & General survey which found that 59% of businesses believed that they would have to stop trading in less than a year after the death or critical illness of a key individual.
12 July 2023
Plan early when exiting a business
Two out of five business owners in the UK are planning to sell, wind up, or crystallize assets within the next year. According to a recent poll conducted by Censuswide, 40% of the 504 surveyed business owners with revenue exceeding £5 million expressed their intention to exit within the next year. Additionally, 23% of UK business owners have expedited their plans to sell or wind down their businesses in the past 12 months.
10 July 2023
Intestacy: increase in the statutory legacy
On 5 July 2023, the UK government confirmed that the statutory legacy, the amount which a surviving spouse or civil partner (for simplicity here we will refer to both as ‘Spouse’) is entitled to receive in England and Wales where a person dies intestate (without a valid Will) and leaves children, will be increased.
4 July 2023
Is there any Inheritance Tax relief for property that falls in value?
We wrote recently about the effect that the interest rates rise have caused on Inheritance Tax (“IHT”).
A combination of historic house price increases, interest rates rises, delays in obtaining a Grant of Probate and the slowing property market means there are a number of estate who will end up selling properties for far less than what was reported to HMRC.
IHT is charged based on the value of the assets in the estate as at date of death. If property is sold at a loss because of fall in value since the date of death, then the estate may have paid more IHT than it should, due to the lower asset value.
3 July 2023
Interest rate chaos and inheritance tax
Inheritance Tax (“IHT”) has been a devise subject for a long time. Now interest rate chaos has added to the burden many face when trying to settle IHT on a deceased’s estate.