Advice issued on nest eggs for relatives

In a climate of rising house prices and era of student fees, an accountancy and tax advisor has issued a list of tips aimed at parents and grandparents looking to leave sizeable amounts of money to their offspring.

The advice includes tips to make use of children's personal allowance and child trust funds, in addition to the use of stakeholder pensions, small gifts and alternative investment market shares, among others.

Alan Ford, client partner at Vantis, commented that it is difficult to save the necessary funds to build up a significant nest egg to leave loved ones.

"However, there are some useful tax incentives that can be used to give children and grandchildren a helping hand," he said

He advised families to use the new year as an opportunity to research the most tax-efficient means of passing on money to their descendents and urged the use of professional advisers.

Mike Warburton, senior tax partner for accounting and consulting organisation Grant Thornton recently commenting that the future of inheritance tax is dependent on which party wins the next general election, with signs that the Conservative Party would reform the tax while Labour would not.