The Duke of Westminster

Dird

Will his beneficiaries be paying £3.32 billion in inheritence tax or are Dukes exempt?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37029915

Savvy_Sue

Dird wrote: »

Will his beneficiaries be paying £3.32 billion in inheritence tax or are Dukes exempt?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37029915

I don't know, maybe the new Duke will come on here to enquire?

'Back in the day', my parents owned a house on which they had to pay ground rent to the Duke. When the law was about to changed which allowed leaseholders to buy the freehold, my Dad asked the agent about doing this. "Oh, the Duke would never allow THAT" was the response. And my Dad was pleased to point out that he might HAVE to! And even more pleased to purchase the freehold in due course.

csgohan4

Maybe they have the cash stashed away in some offshore swiss bank account

sheramber

Since the Queen Mother's estate had to pay inheritance tax on bequests form her estate then the Duke will also be liable unless he has secured his estate against Inheritance tax in some way.

The bulk of the QM's estate went to the Queen and was exempt from inheritance tax under a special legal clause which exempts inheritance from a sovereign's consort to to a sovereign from inheritance tax.

antrobus

Dird wrote: »

Will his beneficiaries be paying £3.32 billion in inheritence tax or are Dukes exempt?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37029915

Dukes are not exempt. Undoubtedly some IHT will be payable, but likely a lot less than £3.32 billion.

The Grovesnors got clobbered for death duties in 1953 and had to sell Pimlico. Since then, their wealth has been held in a mult-part family trust which has dispersed ownership down the family tree. Even the aristocracy can be MSE if they put their minds to it.

SailorSam

csgohan4 wrote: »

Maybe they have the cash stashed away in some offshore swiss bank account

Maybe the cash is in a tin box under the bed.

Nick_C

Only 64. How sad.

[Deleted User]

One thing for sure, the Duke was not exempt from life's challenges, including mental ill-health, and appears to have been well aware of his privilege. Money and wealth beyond a basic level do not bring peace of mind.

Pennywise

Like a lot of the "world's richest xxxxx", in reality, he probably had an awful lot less. Historically wealthy families often have land and buildings, investment portfolios etc locked up in family trusts that are never really "theirs" - usually a life interest trust which means that they can enjoy the assets, i.e. live in them and derive an income from renting land or investment dividends, but the assets themselves are controlled by trustees whose job it is to protect them for the next generation.

Often the land/buildings are in reality worth a lot less due to restrictive covenants which prevent, say, land from being sold or buildings from being converted, thus in reality rendering them practically worthless whereas an observer may look at an estate with a huge house, lots of outbuildings, and acres of land and estimate a valuation of millions!

I'm not suggesting he didn't have an estate truly valued at £9bn or whatever, but my point is that no-one will really know - the rich lists are pure guesses, often at highest possible values rather than realistic. He was certainly very rich, that's not in doubt!

agrinnall

Well his son, the new Duke, had access to enough liquid assets to fund a £5 million 21st birthday party (apparently, my invitation must have got lost in the post).

lisa110rry

I think it's lovely that the 6th Duke held such a wonderful bash for his son's coming of age. And it is noted that the large proportion of attendees were estate employees.

From what I have read, he seems to have contributed greatly to society in many ways.

64 is far too young, 25 is too young to lose a parent, whatever their station in life.