Estate & Succession Planning Estate & Succession Planning

For example, parents may wish to help children during their lifetime while retaining enough capital for retirement. Grandparents may want to provide for grandchildren without giving them control too early. Business owners may need to decide whether shares should pass to family members, business partners or a trust. Farming families may need to balance fairness between children with the practical need to keep land or business assets intact.

Succession planning can include personal property, investments, pensions, private company shares, family businesses, agricultural land and trust structures. It can also address blended families, second marriages and situations where not all children are involved in the family business.

Our goal is to create a personalised plan that reflects your unique circumstances, values and long-term objectives, helping you retain control and avoid unintended outcomes in the future.

What does succession planning involve?

Succession planning starts with understanding your family, your assets and your priorities. No two families or businesses are the same, so the right plan depends on careful discussion and clear advice.

This may involve reviewing:

• How assets are owned and controlled
• Who should benefit from your estate
• Whether lifetime gifting is appropriate
• How inheritance tax planning should be approached
• How business or farming interests should pass
• Whether trusts or family investment companies may assist
• How to protect vulnerable beneficiaries
• How to reduce the risk of future disputes
• Who should take responsibility for management decisions

Good estate planning advice should also consider practical questions. Will the next generation be ready to take over? Should ownership and control pass at the same time? Is there enough liquidity to pay tax or support dependents? Could competing expectations within the family create difficulty later?

Our succession planning solicitors help clients work through these issues in a structured, measured way.

Supporting Families, Business Owners and Landowners

Succession planning is particularly important where family wealth is connected to a business, land, farm or private company shareholding. In these cases, the question is often not simply who should inherit, but who should control, manage and protect the asset for the future.

Preston Redman’s team of specialist estate solicitors advises on family succession planning for:

• Family businesses, including family business succession, shareholder arrangements and passing responsibility to the next generation.
• Company shareholders, including planning for private company shares, voting control and future ownership.
• Farmers and agricultural families, including agricultural succession planning and the transfer of land, farming assets and business interests.
• Property owners, including estate management, investment property and jointly owned assets.
• Families with significant investments, including generational wealth planning and long-term asset protection.

Planning early can give families time to prepare successors, discuss expectations and make decisions before pressure arises. It can also help avoid disputes where some family members are involved in a business and others are not.

Inheritance Tax and Wealth Preservation

Inheritance tax is often an important part of estate and succession planning, but it should not be considered in isolation. The best planning balances tax efficiency with control, flexibility, fairness and family security.

Inheritance tax planning may include lifetime gifting, use of available exemptions, trust planning, business and agricultural reliefs, pension considerations and reviewing how assets are owned. Business Property Relief and Agricultural Property Relief may be relevant for some clients, although the conditions can be detailed and should be reviewed carefully.

Family investment companies can also play a role in wealth preservation, particularly where families wish to pass value to younger generations while retaining a degree of control. They are not suitable for everyone, but in the right circumstances they can form part of a wider estate planning structure.

Our inheritance tax advice focuses on practical outcomes: preserving family wealth, avoiding unnecessary tax exposure where possible and ensuring that planning remains workable for the people who will have to live with it.

How Preston Redman Can Help

Preston Redman can assist with:

• Estate planning reviews: reviewing your current arrangements and identifying areas that may need attention.
• Succession planning advice: helping you decide how wealth, control and responsibility should pass.
• Inheritance tax planning: advising on practical steps to manage inheritance tax exposure.
• Family investment companies: considering whether a company structure may support long-term family wealth planning.
• Business succession planning: planning for ownership, control and continuity of private businesses.
• Agricultural succession planning: advising farming families and landowners on succession, reliefs and future management.
• Trust planning: using trusts where appropriate to protect assets, support beneficiaries and manage control.
• Family governance and wealth transition: helping families agree clear structures for decision-making.
• Long-term strategic planning: creating a plan that can adapt as family circumstances, tax rules and business needs change.

Our work is clear, practical and focused on helping clients make confident decisions.

Why choose Preston Redman?

Clients come to Preston Redman for advice that is careful, direct and grounded in long experience. We offer:

• clear communication without unnecessary legal language;
• practical advice shaped around your family and assets;
• experience with family wealth, business succession and farming succession;
• advice for multiple generations of the same family;
• joined-up thinking across estate planning, inheritance tax planning and succession.

Preston Redman has served clients for more than 150 years. That history matters because succession planning is often about continuity, trust and understanding families over time.

Our private client team includes full members of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP), and clients rate us 5.0 out of 5 on ReviewSolicitors, credentials that reflect the kind of advice you can expect from the very first conversation.

Whether you are planning for the future of your family, your business or your wider estate, Preston Redman can help. Our estate planning team will give clear, practical advice tailored to your circumstances and the people you want to protect. Contact us today.