Here's what your plan needs — and exactly why.
We checked your estate against the open INHERIT standard for England & Wales. Every recommendation below comes with the reasoning behind it. Run it again tomorrow and you'll get the same answer — these are rules, not opinions.
Your plan is taking shape, with a few important gaps
You've recorded David's share of an estate worth £1,180,000, with mirror wills and a villa in Spain. Three things still put your wishes at risk if left as they are — and two professionals would close them properly.
Who you'd benefit from speaking to
Based on what's in your estate — not a sales prompt. Here's how we worked it out.
A will-drafting solicitor (SRA-regulated)
To put your wishes into a valid will and appoint your executors correctly.
- A Spanish villa needs its own Spanish will
- A substitute executor and heirs in Scotland and Australia
- Two properties: one joint, one held in shares in Spain
An Inheritance Tax adviser (CIOT / STEP)
To plan for the second death, when the combined estate of about £2.14m tapers the residence nil-rate band, and to claim the bands that pass to Margaret.
- Estate of £1,180,000 — about £2.14m combined with Margaret's
- A 10% charitable share of the residue on the second death
- Residence band that tapers above £2m
Gaps and risks in your plan
Open any item to see the rule behind it — we never just say "trust us".
Spanish villa: a separate Spanish will is needed Spain has no survivorship for jointly owned property, so David's half passes under his Spanish will, not to Margaret automatically. Attention now
Casa Montgó in Jávea is owned 50/50 by David and Margaret. Spain applies the EU Succession Regulation, and David's Spanish will chooses English law for his succession, so Spanish forced-heirship rules do not apply. Spanish inheritance tax is due within 6 months of death (by 9 Jul 2027 in this example). Everyone involved needs an NIE, the Spanish tax number for foreigners. Illustrative, not advice.
- A
foreign propertyis recorded in the estate. - The villa is held in
shares(proindiviso), and Spain has no survivorship. - Rule: a foreign property raises a
local-will gapat severity high.
Cross-border estate — heirs in Scotland and Australia Your family lives in England, Scotland and Australia, and you own a villa in Spain. Attention now
Your executors are Margaret (Hale) and Sarah (Glasgow), and Daniel (Perth, Australia) is the substitute. English law governs David's UK estate, so Scottish legal rights do not apply, though people in Scotland often assume they do. Australia has no inheritance tax, but Daniel may owe Australian capital gains tax if he later sells something he inherited. A solicitor experienced in cross-border estates can keep the administration straightforward.
- Beneficiaries are resident in
ScotlandandAustralia. - The
substitute executoris resident outsideEngland & Wales. - Rule: cross-jurisdiction executors or heirs raise a
cross-border administrationflag at severity high.
Inheritance Tax on David's death: £0, but plan for the second death Everything to Margaret is exempt. The combined estate of about £2.14m is where tax could arise. Worth reviewing
On David's death, the gifts that are not exempt come to about £43,350, well inside the £325,000 nil-rate band. Everything to Margaret is spouse-exempt, and so is the £5,000 gift to Weaver Valley Hospice Trust. Inheritance Tax due: £0. About 87% of David's nil-rate band and all of his residence band pass to Margaret. On the second death the combined estate is about £2.14m, so the residence band tapers. Leaving at least 10% of the net estate to charity can bring the 36% rate into play instead of 40%. This is where a tax adviser earns their fee. Illustrative estimate, not advice.
- Nil-rate band
£325,000; non-exempt gifts on the first death£43,350= inside the band. - Spouse exemption applies to everything left to Margaret = tax due
£0. - Second death: charitable share
≥ 10%of the net estate → reduced rate36%may apply.
Residence allowance: planned for the second death Your home passes to Margaret by survivorship, then to your children. Sound
Your home passes to Margaret by survivorship, and later to direct descendants (Sarah and Daniel), so the £175,000 residence nil-rate band can apply. The whole of David's band transfers to Margaret. Above a combined estate of £2m the band tapers away by £1 for every £2, so at about £2.14m part of it is lost.
- A
residential propertyis in the estate. - Its eventual beneficiaries are
direct descendants(Sarah, Daniel). - Rule: residence nil-rate band
qualifies, thentapersabove £2m of combined estate.
The same answer, every time. These findings come from published rules in the open INHERIT standard — not from a model guessing. Change a fact and only the rules that depend on it change. You can read every rule, and so can your solicitor.
Your clear next steps
In the order that protects your family fastest. Take them at your own pace — nothing happens automatically.
Get the Spanish will and the second-death tax plan
Two professionals close the attention-now gaps. Firms are ranked by fit.
Plan for the second death
A short adviser session can show how to reduce the tax on the second death.
Share this guidance with them
A one-page summary, with the reasoning, so they start from where you are.
This is guidance, not advice. All figures and findings are estimates computed from the facts you've entered, checked against the open INHERIT standard's England & Wales rules (rule-set status: Stable, reviewed by a named reviewer). They help you decide what to ask a professional — they are not legal or tax advice, a formal valuation, or a substitute for a regulated firm. On the first death David's unused nil-rate and residence bands pass to Margaret; on the second death the residence band tapers above a combined estate of £2m; the 10% charitable test applies to the chargeable part of the estate only. MyFamilyInherits does not provide legal or tax advice; planning is delivered by the regulated firms shown (SRA / CIOT / STEP). Your plan is private until you choose to share it, and you will never be charged automatically.
Your estate record
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Not right now, back to the home pageBuilt on INHERIT v2
This demo is built on INHERIT v2 — an open standard for describing an estate. We show you honestly which parts of this screen the standard can hold today, which are planned, and which are still gaps.
- Supported now4 entriesThe standard already has a place for this today.
- Supported now · shared core0 entriesSupported by the part of the standard shared across our brands.
- Planned2 entriesA change proposal covers this. Where we can check the standard’s own record, we show its status.
- Gap — needs planning1 entriesOn the screen, but no change proposal covers it yet. These still need planning.
- Not a standard concept0 entriesPage furniture, or something we decided the standard should not hold.
7 traced entries on this screen, from two overlapping traces
Each entry comes from either the screen’s feature list or the data the screen displays. The two traces overlap, so one feature can appear twice: these are entries, not a count of distinct features.
Gap — needs planningPlanFinding set (kind + severity + title)
Status: ext.plan_findings
no change proposal covers this yet
Planned"from £…" adviser figures
ICP-0016 Professional engagement & marketplace data model (approved in the standard)ICP-0044 Steward/authority-grant remuneration facet + paid-helper undue-influence safeguardICP-0006 Marketplace & dealer modelICP-0008 Delegation, stewardship & marketplace integrity
PlannedProfessional-match
ICP-0019 Executor / personal-representative appointment & powers model (pending in the standard)
Supported now
decision-support.gaps-risksIn the standard as: Planning · PlanFinding
Supported now
decision-support.next-stepsIn the standard as: Planning · PlanFinding
Supported now
decision-support.plan-needsIn the standard as: Planning · PlanFinding
Supported now
decision-support.professional-matchBuilt in the engine as: @inheritkit/comparison · ADVISER_TRACKS
built in the InheritKit engine — a commercial module, not part of the open standard
The 29 change proposals this demo relies on
A change proposal (ICP) is a tracked request to extend the standard. These are the ones behind the “Planned” features across all 33 screens — and the few already adopted and built. Where the standard has a written proposal we show its status from the standard’s own record; where it does not, we say so rather than guess.
- ICP-0001 · TT-657 — Port v1 consumer-estate surface into v2 (retracted in the standard)
- ICP-0002 · TT-658 — IHT 36% reduced charity rate (approved in the standard)
- ICP-0006 · TT-663 — Marketplace & dealer model (tracked; no written proposal yet)
- ICP-0007 · TT-664 — Valuation lifecycle enrichment (tracked; no written proposal yet)
- ICP-0008 · TT-665 — Delegation, stewardship & marketplace integrity (tracked; no written proposal yet)
- ICP-0013 · TT-672 — Condition grading (tracked; no written proposal yet)
- ICP-0014 · TT-673 — Collector records bundle (tracked; no written proposal yet)
- ICP-0015 · TT-674 — Legal-assurance model (pending in the standard)
- ICP-0016 · TT-681 — Professional engagement & marketplace data model (approved in the standard)
- ICP-0019 · TT-684 — Executor / personal-representative appointment & powers model (pending in the standard)
- ICP-0021 · TT-686 — Wishes, directives & plan-assessment primitives (pending in the standard)
- ICP-0022 · TT-1029 — Post-death estate-administration & will-lifecycle domain (approved in the standard)
- ICP-0024 · TT-1031 — Nomination / expression-of-wish — non-testamentary transfer route (approved in the standard)
- ICP-0026 · TT-1033 — Free-text→structured multi-entity extraction (approved in the standard)
- ICP-0027 · TT-1034 — Living-Monitoring change-event model (approved in the standard)
- ICP-0028 · TT-1040 — Couple / mirror-vs-mutual wills modelling (approved in the standard)
- ICP-0029 · TT-1954 — Insurance-cover model (approved in the standard)
- ICP-0030 · TT-1069 — Catalogue item-import adapter (approved in the standard)
- ICP-0033 · TT-1131 — Executor pre-death readiness facet (approved in the standard)
- ICP-0034 · TT-1132 — E&W IHT spouse exemption (tracked; no written proposal yet)
- ICP-0044 · TT-1143 — Steward/authority-grant remuneration facet + paid-helper undue-influence safeguard (tracked; no written proposal yet)
- ICP-0046 · TT-1144 — Multi-opinion / consensus valuation shape (approved in the standard)
- ICP-0047 · TT-1145 — Compute faith fixed-shares (approved in the standard)
- ICP-0052 · TT-1292 — Funeral & farewell domain (tracked; no written proposal yet)
- ICP-0054 · TT-1174 — Asset-side external-registry enrichment (tracked; no written proposal yet)
- ICP-0055 · TT-1175 — Asset enrichment facets: maker/external-id (tracked; no written proposal yet)
- ICP-0061 · TT-687 — Heir collaboration & asset-claim resolution (tracked; no written proposal yet)
- ICP-0062 · TT-688 — Collections & asset disposition (tracked; no written proposal yet)
- ICP-0070 · TT-969 — Steward / AuthorityBasis — who may act for whom, with what authority, scope and consent, and the legal-effect confirmation rule (tracked; no written proposal yet)
Checked against a pinned copy of the standard’s change-proposal register (73 proposals, standard at main@f63ca72e116d), and against the standard’s own record of what it has adopted (29 written proposals, 176 computed rules). Sample estate — demo data, no sign-up.