Blog
Estate Planning Inheritance Taxation
Have you got intergenerational wealth transfer right for your family?
Amy Woolliscroft28th July 2026
Over the next 30 years it’s predicted that we will see a vast sum of wealth changing hands.
‘The Great Wealth Transfer’ anticipates trillions of pounds of wealth moving from one generation to the next in the UK alone.
If you’re worried about the legacy of your life’s work – help us to engage your beneficiaries now.
This transfer of wealth – whether that’s cash, a business, a farm or estate, property assets or shares, for example – presents an opportunity for your beneficiaries to take actions to benefit their own children and grandchildren, as well as changing their own lives. This could be helping children get on the property ladder, fund education for grandchildren or provide overall financial security at a time when we know the cost of living is continuing to hit young families hard.
But it won't be easy - IHT is complex and steps to mitigate the liability are becoming increasingly more intricate and nuanced.
While assets continue to rise, but the IHT threshold and IHT reliefs stay frozen, more families are being pulling into paying IHT than ever before. Reduced Agricultural Property Relief (APR) and Business Relief (BR), as well as most unused pensions and death benefits coming into IHT calculations with effect from 6 April 2027 (we’re still waiting for the small print on this), and increasingly complex family structures mean that more farming and rural families are looking for professional handholding through the process of ‘good’ intergenerational succession planning and beyond. As always, tax regulations can change at any time and tax treatment depends on individual circumstances.
However, this isn’t a conversation to start at the point of someone passing away – without engaging earlier on families can see a significant portion of that wealth being lost or fragmented within just a couple of generations. Engaging with intergenerational wealth management at an early stage means you are more likely to secure a meaningful legacy for your life’s work.
We know that conversations about death and what children might expect to inherit can be difficult, but without intergenerational planning with professional support there might be unexpected IHT bills to pay, or there might be less to be inherited than they thought, and the administration might take longer than necessary. Very few people have ever dealt with estate administration* before, either as a beneficiary or executor, and there are many potential stumbling blocks along the way.
Don’t forget that HMRC will charge interest on IHT bills that cannot be paid on time, further eating into your legacy.
Having a strategic financial plan in place for your beneficiaries will help them make the most of that inheritance too, so it lasts for their lifetime and perhaps beyond.
Do your family know where to go if anything unexpected happens?
Working with a financial adviser to create an intergenerational wealth transfer plan also ensures that your family know that you have taken some of that burden away from them and they can just go directly to that trusted professional when the time comes.
One of Accession’s three Chartered Financial Planners and Director of Accession, Emma Wilcock BSc (Hons) FPFS, says: “At Accession we work closely with experienced solicitors* and accountants* that are highly focused in the field of estates and farms, to ensure that the very best outcomes are being achieved. There isn’t just IHT to think of, there’s Capital Gains Tax and Income Tax too, requiring some joined up thinking from your professional support team so that when the time comes, your family can trust that we are doing all the hard work for them, allowing them to focus on what really matters.”
How can Accession help?
Intergenerational wealth transfer planning is about joined-up thinking and early conversations to ensure that all parties are engaged for the best outcomes for them, and the best legacy transfer for you.
Accession specialises in providing high-quality, face-to-face intergenerational wealth management for farming families, professionals, rural businesses and families across Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire and across the East of England.
All three Accession financial advisers – Emma Wilcock, Joe Moricca and Richard Jones - are Chartered Financial Planners and Fellows of the Personal Finance Society, accolades held by a very small number of financial advisers in the UK and meaning we are fully equipped to help guide you through planning for the future. They are also all Top-Rated Financial Advisers with VouchedFor, the independent review platform for professional services.
If you or someone you know would benefit from speaking to one of our advisers about planning for the future, please do contact us on 01832 279170 or accession@sjpp.co.uk to discuss your requirements and get an appointment in the diary.
* Please note that the services of estate administrators, solicitors and accountants are separate and distinct to the services provided by St. James's Place.
SJP Approved 28/7/2026