Alltrust launches IHT/pension toolkit for advisers following Family Suntrust acquisition

Pension administrator Alltrust Services has launched a toolkit designed to help advisers plan for unused pensions being brought into the scope of inheritance tax (IHT), and completed the transfer of the Family Suntrust book.

From April, unused pension funds and most death benefits will be included in a member’s estate for IHT purposes, with personal representatives liable for the charge.

Alltrust has combined a set of pension capabilities into one planning toolkit, delivered through its Family Pension Trust.

The firm stated that each element of the toolkit is released for live cases only when they have been reviewed by its external tax advisers, with the toolkit designed to evolve as policy changes.

Tools include pensions paid directly from the trust to a surviving spouse, dependent partner or qualifying child, which remain outside the estate under rules written deliberately into the legislation; insured income arranged within the trust; the design of nominations and contribution funding across the family; and planning for families whose pension holds the trading premises, where the 2027 charge would otherwise arrive in cash secured on a building that cannot be sold in part.

“The 2027 rules tax inherited pension pots and spare pensions in payment,” commented Alltrust Services managing director, James Floyd.

“That distinction rewards capability the market largely stepped away from during 20 years of simplification: paying a pension directly from a pension trust to a dependant.

“We kept that machinery, and we have now built it into a toolkit advisers can use case by case. This is lots of boring solutions being brought together, rather than a new creation.

“We are not selling a turnkey answer. Every tool is reviewed by our external tax advisers before it is used on a live case, advisers choose the blend for each family, and we are constantly working with our tax and legal partners on further solutions as the rules settle.”

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