To take TFLS maximum now or not?

cfw1994

logies said:

Thanks both, yes I probably do need to take some professional advice but that in itself is a minefield - ie where to find a good adviser. In the meantime I’ve found some of the advice on here very helpful. 

Just for balance: it feels to me like you have done pretty well to get to where you are now.  

Did you take IFA/FA advice before?  If not….maybe you don’t desperately need it now 🤷‍♂️
No harm in having a conversation, but be aware there will be an natural desire from any Advisor to take control of those funds and savings, perhaps to the detriment of the growth 👀

I do think you certainly both take your personal allowance (tax free) - that almost always makes sense….but as per Smudge - you should probably consider taking enough to get you up to your 40% rate.

Maybe there are some clever things you could do with trusts, etc, but they will come with a cost associated with them.  We are now of the mind to try to simplify things rather than make them more complex 🫣

Smudgeismydog said:

logies said:

Thanks for all the thoughts. I want to know how to draw down in a tax efficient manner (however that might be) and avoid any unnecessary IHT liabilities if possible.

My wife could draw down her personal allowance but her pot is small compared to mine so my instinct was to leave that be. I will have taxable income for the next few years which will use up my PA but it won’t be enough to live on.  I was thinking of taking the tax free cash and living off that as an interim measure. However, I am no expert in these matters and from what’s been said here I need some professional advice. But where to find trusted and good advice. That is part of the problem.

As @ukdw noted, why not take taxable income to fully utilise the 20% bracket? Once your state pensions are in payment, you will have less headroom to do this.

If this provides you with a combined income in excess of your expenditure requirements, you could consider making regular gifts. This would help with the IHT considerations.

Albermarle

wjr4 said:

Albermarle said:

QrizB said:

There's a case to be made for taking the TFLS from the £1.1M pot, since any further growth will be taxable. Investing the TFLS elsewhere (eg. in ISAs) would probably give a better outcome, unless there's a significant increase in the £268k allowance.

With >£4M in assets, you might like to consider taking professional advice rather than asking a bunch of nobodies on the internet 🙂

At £4million, it might be out of range of a regular high st advisor though.

£4million is completely normal for most IFAs.

OK, I only made this comment based on what I read in other threads in the past.

In that up to a certain level of assets, there are well known, relatively easy mainstream ways to manage them in terms of income tax, IHT liabilities, growth/risk, income generation etc .
I understood that at a certain point it can get more complicated i.e using such things like VCT and similar;  offshore , trusts etc and that point was around £3 million ( ish) 
At what level would you say it needs more specialised expertise ?

logies

I have taken advice before cfw1994 but I didn’t feel that my questions were properly answered.