Protect your legacy and preserve family wealth with clear, proactive estate planning tailored to your tax position, personal goals, and long-term vision.
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Estate planning is the important process of organising your finances and assets so they can be passed on to the right people, in the right way, at the right time.
The Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts UK Inheritance Tax receipts of around £9.1 billion in 2025–26.
At Gravitate, our dedicated Tax team helps business owners, directors and high-net-worth individuals plan effectively for the future. Our Estate Planning service ensures more of your wealth is passed on and less is lost to HMRC.
Our approach is proactive, discreet, and well-structured to make sure you always have clarity, control, and confidence about the future.
Without proper planning, your estate could face a 40% Inheritance Tax bill or potentially more, significantly reducing the value passed to your family.
But with the right structures and timing, much of this liability can be reduced or eliminated altogether. Estate tax planning is all about maximising reliefs, using exemptions, and structuring your wealth in a way that supports your long-term intentions.
The earlier it begins, the more options you’ll have available. You don’t need to be in the later stages of life for it to be valuable.
We’ll help you understand your current IHT exposure and implement proven strategies to mitigate it. This includes the use of nil rate bands, exemptions, lifetime gifting, will planning and structured transfers that fall outside your estate over time.
If you own a qualifying trading business, we will ensure you have the guidance to structure your business and activities to meet the criteria and maximise relief through Business Property Relief (BPR), one of the most valuable tools available to business owners planning for succession.
Trusts can be a powerful way to manage wealth, retain control of assets, mitigate tax liabilities during your lifetime and after your death. We will advise on suitable trust structures, how they are taxed, and how they can be used as part of a wider estate strategy
We can also guide you through the Family Investment Companies as an alternative or complimentary to trusts, offering control, flexibility and potential tax efficiencies around income, capital gains, and longer-term estate planning.
We’ll help you make full use of gifting exemptions, taper relief, so you can reduce the taxable value of your estate while supporting your loved ones today.
Estate planning often overlaps with Capital Gains Tax, and we can advise on when to trigger disposals, hold assets, or use trusts and company structures to minimise overall tax exposure across both CGT and Inheritance Tax (IHT).
If you’re UK non-domiciled or have international links, we’ll assess your domicile status and advise on its impact on your estate. We can help implement planning that reflects both UK and cross-border tax rules.
At Gravitate, our goal is to make complex tax matters simple, strategic, and stress-free. We work closely with you to develop a customised estate tax plan that protects your wealth, aligns with your commercial and personal goals, and fully leverages all available reliefs.
While we don’t provide probate or legal drafting services ourselves, we work in close partnership with trusted legal experts who can handle these aspects with the same care and precision that we do with your tax. Together, we offer a joined-up approach that ensures your estate is protected, structured, and ready for the future.
Inheritance Tax is a tax on the estate (property, money and possessions) of someone who has died. The standard rate is 40% on the portion of the estate above the available tax-free threshold (nil-rate band).
IHT is usually payable if the value of an estate exceeds the available nil-rate band (currently £325,000, plus any applicable residence nil-rate band). It may also apply to certain lifetime gifts made within seven years of death.
Business Property Relief (BPR) can reduce the value of certain business assets for IHT purposes by 50% or 100%, depending on the type of asset and ownership period. It is designed to allow family businesses to pass on without being broken up to pay tax.
Lifetime gifting involves giving assets away during your lifetime to reduce the value of your taxable estate. Some gifts are immediately exempt, while others become exempt if you survive seven years after making them.
A Family Investment Company (FIC) is a private company structure used by families to hold and manage investments tax-efficiently while retaining control over assets. While not a statutory relief, FICs are subject to normal Corporation Tax and dividend rules.
It's never too early to start estate planning. Estate planning should begin as early as possible, particularly once you begin building significant assets, running a business or starting a family. Early planning allows time to make use of reliefs such as Business Property Relief and the seven-year gifting rule, and prevents unnecessary stress and effort later on in life.
Unit 13E
92 Burton Road
Neepsend
Sheffield
S3 8BX
United Kingdom
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