The Telegraph quotes Julia Cox on the use of Family Investment Companies for inheritance planning

According to The Telegraph, in a bid to minimise the effects of Labour’s looming inheritance tax raid, increasing numbers of people are turning to Family Investment Companies (FICs) as a means of protecting their hard-earned wealth.

Julia Cox, Private Client Partner, provides comments for The Telegraph on the uptick:

We've seen steadily increasing demand for Family Investment Companies since changes to trust rules in 2006 made it harder to gift assets into trust in an inheritance tax efficient way while retaining control.

"More recently, interest has picked up partly due to greater awareness, often following liquidity events such as business sales. The 2019 HMRC review which concluded that FICs aren’t being used for abusive tax avoidance has also helped reinforce their legitimacy.

"From our side, there’s certainly been an uptick in new FIC instructions over the past couple of years, with a flurry of transactions executed ahead of recent Budgets and continued high levels of interest since. One of the clearest indicators has been increased engagement from intermediaries, we’ve given half a dozen talks on FICs in the past six months alone, and we’re regularly being asked to support advisers as these structures become a more common part of estate planning conversations.

"Looking ahead, we expect momentum to grow post-April 2026, when business assets may for the first time be exposed to inheritance tax with current 100% relief potentially reducing to 50%. That, alongside other expected tax changes (including the government's commitment to cap corporation tax for the life of the Parliament and the increase of capital gains tax for individuals) has made FICs more appealing and could further increase demand as families look for alternative structures to support inheritance tax planning.

With thanks to Edward Robinson, Legal Director for his input on the quote too.

Read the full piece in The Telegraph here.