Private client end-of-year tax planning

As tax advisers looking after private clients there are some questions that we routinely need to ask even if we cannot provide the services ourselves. One of the first things we always discuss with a new client is whether they have an up-to-date will for example. Having this conversation often causes a little stab of guilt when we think about our own affairs: how many times have we explained to a client that it is really important that they put in place a lifetime power of attorney while secretly remembering that we still have not sorted one out for ourselves?

So although this is an article to remind advisers of some of the last-minute actions their clients should take before the end of the tax year we hope that it will also be a prompt to the adviser to think about their own position too....