Fergus and FelicityVine live in the North East of England. They own a house valued around £390,000 and this is owned as a beneficial joint tenancy. They have been married for 20 years and have no children together. Fergus has one 26-year-old son,Ethan, from a previous marriage. 

Fergus is 57 and in good health. He married at 21 but divorced at 35, when he then met Felicity. He had a clean-break settlement and his ex-wife has no claim on his finances. 

Fergus’s father is still alive and lives 10 miles away in his own property in Newcastle. He is a widower and at 84 still lives on his own. He has a number of health issues which are currently managed well. The property owned by Fergus’s father is valued at £270,000 and hehas written a will that leavesthis to Fergus and his sister Gillian. Gillianemigrated to Australia some years ago and now has Australian citizenship. Fergus is aware that any future care responsibilities for his father will likely fall primarily upon him and Felicityas his sister lives so far away.

Felicity’s parents are a little younger. Felicityis 51 and her parents are in their mid-seventies. They are both in reasonable health. They live in the South East of England in a small village on the outskirts of the city of London. They own a large house that has a current market value in the region of £1,300,000. They also have some jointly held cash based investments amounting to £205,000 and ISAs of £48,000 each. On the first death, Felicity’s parents would like to leave the remainder to the surviving partner. On second death they would like to leave as much of this as possible toFelicityand her younger sister Georgina upon their death. They are very keen that the “tax man should not have any of Felicityand Georgina’s inheritance” but do not know much about inheritance tax.They are aware they may have to pay tax but would like to mitigate this where possible. Felicity’s sister Georgina is unmarried with one eleven-year-old sonJames,Felicity’s nephew