Accountants often know more about a client’s financial affairs than almost anyone outside the family. We see the accounts, property income, company shareholdings, directors’ loan accounts, investments and sometimes substantial transfers of money between family members. We may advise the same client for decades.
Yet one question can remain surprisingly easy to overlook: what happens to all of this when the client dies?
Encouraging clients to maintain a simple record of significant gifts can save considerable difficulty later
Often, the problems that arise after death have existed for years. In some cases, the accountant was ideally placed to spot the warning signs while something could still have been done. Here are some examples of questions that could be asked to identify potential problems earlier.
Who owns the house?
If a client has transferred a property, or a share in it, to their children, it does not necessarily mean it has disappeared from the client’s estate for inheritance tax (IHT) purposes.
If the client continues to occupy or otherwise benefit from the property, the gift with reservation of benefit rules may apply. There can also be questions about whether beneficial ownership was genuinely transferred and whether the documentation reflects what actually happened.
The accountant does not need to resolve these issues. But a significant change in property ownership should prompt questions about the purpose of the transaction, continued occupation or benefit, and whether specialist advice has been taken.
What have you gifted to the children?
Accountants regularly see substantial transfers to family members. Years later, executors may have to establish whether a payment was a gift, a loan, repayment of an earlier debt or something else. If it was a gift, they may also need to establish when it was made and its value. That becomes much harder if nobody kept contemporaneous records.
Consider asking: ‘What happens to your ownership when you die?’
HMRC expects those administering an estate to establish details of relevant lifetime gifts. Encouraging clients to maintain a simple record of significant gifts, including what was given, to whom, when and its value, can save considerable difficulty later.
What is your succession plan?
If the client owns a business, the accountant may know precisely who owns the shares and how the company operates. But what is actually supposed to happen to those shares on the owner’s death?
The will, company constitution and any shareholders’ agreement need to be considered together. Nor should favourable IHT treatment simply be assumed.
Business relief remains potentially valuable, but the rules changed from 6 April 2026. The availability and rate of relief depend on the nature and value of the qualifying business property and the relevant statutory conditions. Changes in the activities or assets of a business can also affect whether relief is available.
Probate can expose uncertainty about who actually owned an asset
For a business owner approaching succession, consider also asking them the question: ‘What happens to your ownership when you die?’
Who owns the asset?
Legal ownership might not tell the whole story, and probate can expose uncertainty about who actually owned an asset.
A property may be registered in one name while another person claims a beneficial interest. An asset used by a partnership may be personally owned. Jointly held assets may not pass in the way family members assume.
These distinctions can have significant tax and estate administration consequences.
Accountants often see evidence that others do not: rental income, mortgage payments, capital contributions, partnership accounts and balance sheets. If the accounting records and the assumed ownership of an asset appear inconsistent, asking why may uncover an issue that is better resolved during lifetime than during probate.
When did you last review your will?
Many clients will have a will, but what if life moves on and circumstances change? A will written many years ago may predate a marriage or divorce, grandchildren, a business sale, substantial gifts, property acquisitions or a major increase in wealth.
A short conversation during the client’s lifetime can be disproportionately valuable
The accountant does not need to advise on the will. But where a client’s circumstances have changed materially, asking whether their will and wider estate planning have also been reviewed can expose a problem before it reaches the executors.
Early-warning system
None of this means accountants should become probate practitioners or specialist inheritance tax advisers; it means recognising the advantage accountants already have.
We often see clients regularly, understand how their wealth was accumulated and notice financial changes as they happen. The professional who eventually administers the estate may be trying to reconstruct those same events many years later.
A short conversation during the client’s lifetime can therefore be disproportionately valuable. The question is not whether the accountant should provide all the answers. Sometimes the accountant’s most valuable contribution is simply recognising when the right questions need to be asked.
