Readers’ forum: Mitigating IHT on farmhouse inheritance?

My widowed client (C) is considering his will. He lives on a smallholding of 30 acres including a large old farmhouse owned by the family for the last century. The farmhouse value is £700 000; and surrounding land and substantial agricultural buildings are valued at £970 000. The estate (including machinery collections loans made and cash together with a house occupied by the son’s partner is approximately £2.9m). It is unlikely that agricultural property relief will be available as the income from hay and straw sales is small.

C has a strained relationship with his son (S 45) who is in and out of self-employment (and the pub) and barely self-sufficient. S is unmarried and has four children. S occasionally lives with his partner (P) who has custody of their children (ages 12–20). P lives with the children in a house bought by the client of...