Inheritance tax tangles and pension pot worries – what YOU asked our financial planning experts this year

From wondering what to do with an in-demand bungalow inherited from a parent, to fearing what will happen to a disabled child’s benefits if they inherit a house, This is Money readers have had many questions when it comes to their finances.

Our financial planning channel launched earlier in the year and has exploded in popularity,  as a tough economic climate mixed with a new government weighed on minds and purse strings and people looked to shore up their futures.

Fears over the Autumn Budget and the resulting changes made by the Chancellor caused plenty of confusion.

Rafts of questions flooded in as readers feared losing out to tax hikes and struggled to get their heads round what the Government’s plans mean for them.

These are the questions that most weighed on the minds’ of our readers.

Often, people don’t know where to start with their financial conundrums, and this is where we come in. See below for how to get your financial planning question answered by our panel of experts.

Inheritances weighed on minds

So many of the emails that found their way into our financial planning inbox this year were focused on one thing: inheritance tax.

Readers wanted to know how to mitigate their future tax bills in order to leave as much of their estates as possible to their loved ones.

While the amount parents planned to leave their children varies from just over the nil-rate band to well over the maximum allowance for those making use of spousal transfer and residence nil-rate bands, none quite came close to one reader who contacted This is Money about the £10million they were about to inherit.

A nice problem to have, perhaps, but one that was causing the reader a few headaches.

More commonly, readers were keen to see how they could pass rather more modest sums to their families without paying inheritance tax, exploring how they can make the most of gifting rules and use the gifts out of surplus income rule, and even start paying for family holidays to avoid the bill.

Others hoped to find out what they should do with money they were inheriting or in one case if they could pay off their estranged son’s student loans.

Capital gains hikes

The words on so many lips this year were ‘capital gains tax’, and this was only heightened by the announcement in the summer that the Autumn Budget would prove ‘painful’ – cue months of fear and panic-driven financial decisions.

This is where the wacky comes in. One reader, who was three-years divorced, got in touch to ask if it was worth remarrying her ex-husband in order to cut her capital gains tax bill on jointly owned properties.

It could work as a tax mitigation strategy, though HMRC is likely to scrutinise a marriage that appears to be solely for tax mitigation purposes.

Whether remarrying your ex-husband is a good idea for all of the non-financial aspects of your lives… the jury is still out on that one.

Another worried that through his investing he had dug himself into a capital gains tax trap after contributing £300 monthly to his investments for eight years.

Pension pots were a worry

As your future source of income following retirement, it is hardly surprising that most of us worry about the health of our pensions.

One reader contacted This is Money concerned that they could lose half of their £177,000 pension if their provider went bust, as the Government only protects the first £85,000.

There is a small risk of this happening, though it largely depends on the type of pension you have, as many are completely protected.

For so many others, however, the fear is that their pension won’t be enough to fund them through later life. Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association figures revealed that those using auto-enrolment could have saved just half of what they need by the time they retire.

Many readers are keen to boost their pensions where they can, such as by using a redundancy payout and minimise their tax bill at the same time, while others wanted clarity on whether they are on track to be able to retire when they want to do so.

Then, with the announcement that pensions are set to be included in inheritance tax calculations, readers worried that they might be pushed above the nil-rate band.

Readers looked for higher returns 

With the democratisation of investing that has come with the launch of online platforms, savers are increasingly unsatisfied with the meagre returns offered by their bank accounts and are instead turning to stocks and shares to grow their money.

Many readers contacted This is Money to ask how they can increase the returns on their wealth, whether a £200,000 inheritance or £100 per month being put away for a newborn baby’s future.

One reader sitting on an inherited bungalow asked whether it was best to avoid selling in order to make money from property price increases, or whether they should shift this elsewhere.

Most of these concerns aren’t likely to go away in the near future, and with more tax changes set to come into effect from April, This is Money’s financial planning inbox will remain open for readers to ask our experts how they can make the most of, and keep hold of, as much of their money as possible.