Planning your finances can be far from straightforward. It is often said that the more money you have, the more you have to worry about, and this is no more true than when deciding how best to leave your hard earned assets to friends and family, whether this be on death or during your lifetime.

However, it is not a headache which just affects the wealthiest in society. Increasingly the inheritance tax net is catching people with more modest estates. For example in 2011-2012 inheritance tax was charged against almost 16,000 estates, but if the current tax thresholds remain the same then by 2020 this figure is expected to rise to 56,100. The reason for this upsurge is due mainly to the forecasted increase in house prices, which will push up the value of what people own.