Which option should I go for?
Well it depends.
Firstly, “inheritance tax planning” is often used by solicitors to invite people to make a will. The reality is only 4% of estates actually pay inheritance tax, so most estates don’t actually need that much tax planning. Secondly, trusts that are created by wills cost money to run and administrate. They shouldn’t be created unnecessarily.
So our view is that only two types of people should use a more expensive, sit-down appointment solicitor:
- You are wealthy (e.g. leaving over two million)
- You have extensive overseas assets
In each of these cases it would make sense to pay a bit more, as you’ll end up making significant savings as a result.
For everyone else (the 96%), there is either the option of a free will, or an IFG Will (which comes in two flavours – the normal IFG Will of £98 and the trust-based IFG Will for those who need a tax-efficient will and have an estate over £325,0000).
A free will makes sense for 2 types of people:
- People with extremely simple wills – e.g. they are single, not leaving any bequests, don’t have children and don’t have very many assets (for example, when I was a student, I used a free will to draft my will)
- People with legal training, who are confident on the legal formalities to attend to, and their drafting of any specific bequests. Such people should also be comfortable with drafting trusts if they have larger estates.
Then there’s IFG Wills.
We designed IFG Wills because we noted that most people (60%) don’t have a will – and they should have one – both religiously and for practical reasons. But most people didn’t have a will because, lets face it, hiring a solicitor is a pain. And most people feel a bit daunted by the idea of doing a DIY will.
So we created an experience that brings together the best of both worlds. You get the legal expertise and bespoke review and sign-off of a solicitor, and the stay-at-home comfort and speed of a free online will.
We also offer a trust-based IFG Will which is designed in collaboration with a leading barrister in wills law and is structured to be tax-efficient. You should go for this option if:
- you have assets over £325,000, or where you own a residential property, assets over £500,000;
- have means-tested benefit recipients among your inheritors; or
- you would like your trustees to retain a lot of flexibility and discretion over your estate.
Don’t worry if that sounds complicated. Just go on IFG Wills and click “get started” and we’ll take you through a 20 second quiz to work out if you need to go for a trust-based will or not.
But we want to be genuinely neutral/impartial here. That’s why we’ve linked all the options from our “competitors” (we don’t really see them that way, and we don’t get any payment from them).
You can easily try out the free will options, and get started on your IFG Will process (it is essentially filling out a clever form) very quickly and before paying -and that’ll help make up your mind more than anything.