Downing has expanded its estate planning support for advisers with the launch of a new inheritance tax calculator.
The new free to use tool will enable advisers to model clients’ IHT liabilities ahead of major legislative changes, including the inclusion of unused pensions in estates from April next year.
The UK’s Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts that IHT receipts will increase by 67% over the next five years from around £8.7 billion in the 2025/26 tax year to £14.5 billion in the 2030/31 tax year.
Changes from April 2026 mean that qualifying agricultural property relief (APR) and business relief (BR) assets benefit from 100% relief up to £2.5 million per individual. Above that threshold, relief is available at 50%, resulting in an IHT charge on the excess. According to Downing’s own research, advisers reported a 76% rise in the proportion of clients using BR for IHT planning, while nearly 60% of advisers estimate 20-30% of their IHT-planning clients use BR solutions.
Pension reforms are also driving estate planning activity, with nearly half (47%) of advisers stating that clients are cutting pension contributions to invest in IHT solutions, and 30% reporting clients are withdrawing pension funds to support estate planning.
The calculator, which is available via Downing’s Adviser Hub, allows advisers to export a co-branded report showing a summary of their clients’ IHT positions for use in meetings. It includes a rebalancing function for BR investments, so advisers can shift values between AIM and unquoted BR holdings to model different planning scenarios and optimise mitigation strategies.
Rebecca Ward-Howes, head of product at Downing, said: “IHT receipts have reached record highs and, with further increases forecast over the next five years, the imperative for robust estate planning has never been greater. Recent policy changes have prompted every adviser to fundamentally revisit all estate planning with clients and in doing so, they are accelerating real innovation across the IHT planning landscape.
“Advisers need more than product solutions; they need the tools and supporting materials to model complex scenarios with confidence and communicate outcomes to clients in a compelling, accessible way. We are seeing strong demand from advisers for Business Relief, with successive Budgets adding further momentum. We responded by building what we believe is a best-in-class planning tool.”
Since launch, 124 advisers have adopted the tool, Downing said.
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