Wills, Probate, & Inheritance Tax For Dummies, 2nd Edition Wills, Probate, & Inheritance Tax For Dummies, 2nd Edition® Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd The Atrium Southern Gate Chichester West Sussex PO19 8SQ England E-mail (for orders and customer service enquires): cs- [email protected] Visit our Home Page on www.wileyeurope.com Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, West Sussex, England Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, West Sussex All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except under the terms of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London, W1T 4LP, UK, without the permission in writing of the Publisher. 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LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: The publisher, the author, AND ANYONE ELSE INVOLVED IN PREPARING THIS WORK make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales or promotional materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. The fact that an organization or Website is referred to in this work as a citation and/or a potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information the organization or Website may provide or recommendations it may make. Further, readers should be aware that Internet Websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read. Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data: A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: 978-0-470-75629-4 Printed and bound in Great Britain by Bell and Bain, Glasgow 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 About the Author Julian Knight was born in 1972 in Chester. He was educated at Chester Catholic High School and later Hull University, where he obtained a degree in history. He is currently the Personal Finance Editor for the Independent on Sunday. He was the BBC News Personal Finance and Consumer Affairs Reporter for five years and wrote for the BBC News Web site. Before joining the BBC, Julian worked at Moneywise magazine and contributed to the Guardian as well as many other publications. Julian Knight is the author of Retiring Wealthy For Dummies, The British Citizenship Test For Dummies, and Cricket For Dummies. Dedication To Val, my mother, for her love, support, and working so hard to give me the best. And to Charlotte de Veras (1973-1999) for always being right. Author’s Acknowledgements Great thanks to Francis Klonowski, one of the UK’s leading financial planners, for all his help and advice on the inheritance tax passages of this book. Publisher’s Acknowledgements We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our Dummies online registration form located at www.dummies.com/register/. Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following: Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media Development Project Editor: Rachael Chilvers Commissioning Editor: Samantha Spickernell Proofreader: Christine Lea Publisher: Jason Dunne Executive Project Editor: Daniel Mersey Cover Photo: © Blend Images / Alamy Cartoons: Ed McLachlan Composition Services Project Coordinator: Erin Smith Layout and Graphics: Claudia Bell, Reuben W. Davis, Alissa D. Ellet, Melissa K. Jester, Stephanie D. Jumper, Christine Williams