Equity release and transfer of property to offspring

kidmugsy

What we did 15 years ago was
(i) Check that we held the house as "tenants in common" (we did: most married couples probably don't)
(ii) Wrote wills for each of us that left our own half of the house and our own assets (up to the IHT nil rate band) to a Discretionary Trust, with the survivor and another family member as Trustees. Any assets left over were to go to the widow/widower.

It's time we went back to the solicitor to see whether any changes would be wise: there have been legal changes since the wills were written.

On first death, the Trustees would certainly seek legal advice on how to handle the split ownership of the house to ensure that the whole house didn't become liable to IHT in future - the advice would have to reflect the law at that time.