
Family & Company Wills
Company Wills & Estate Planning
Sole traders
Competing interests of beneficiaries under a Will or under the intestacy rules may result in the PRs having to sell the business as soon as possible, especially if there is mounting pressure from beneficiaries to ‘cash in’ the assets in the estate.
Key Contacts
Partnerships
If there is no partnership agreement in place the partnership may unwittingly simply dissolve on the death of a partner!
A partnership agreement can give the surviving partners the ability to purchase a deceased partner’s share from the PRs of the estate.
The partnership agreement would be carefully drafted so as not to create a binding agreement to sell in the event of death, which could have adverse inheritance tax consequences.

Business Property Relief, Will planning & Inheritance Tax
It is quite common in circumstances in which a person is married or in a civil partnership that they simply leave all of their estate to their surviving spouse or civil partner in the event of death. If the estate contains business interests this could be wasting the BPR however as assets passing to a spouse or civil partner are exempt from inheritance tax anyway.
It may be more tax efficient in the long run to leave the business interests into a trust as an alternative to all the estate passing outright to a surviving spouse or civil partner. The surviving spouse or civil partner can still benefit from the trust during their lifetime but without the underlying value of the trust fund then being included in their own estate in the event of their later death.
We can also advise on the most suitable business structures to ensure that a business is best placed to deal with such circumstances at a difficult time.
Other reliefs including Agricultural Property Relief and IHT generally – we have Tax Partners who are able to advise on the right route for your Will planning, which involves your overall strategic capital planning during your life, or on death.
Our Tax Partners are available to advise on the right route for your Will planning, which involves your overall strategic capital planning during your life, or on death.
Other areas where we can help
Please contact Barrie Dunning, Ed Lorman or your usual Beavis Morgan Partner to arrange an initial no fee no obligation meeting.