About the author
Steve Hunt ACII TEP
Steve Hunt is a Chartered Insurance Risk Manager, an Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute (ACII), and a Trust and Estate Practitioner (TEP), a full member of STEP. He has worked in UK financial services since 1980, in pensions, protection and estate planning. He writes about inheritance tax, the April 2027 pension changes, annuities, whole of life assurance and trusts.
Qualifications
- ACII: Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute, the professional body for the insurance and financial planning profession. The Institute's designations and titles.
- Chartered Insurance Risk Manager: a chartered title awarded by the Chartered Insurance Institute to qualified members. The title on the GOV.UK register of regulated professions.
- TEP: Trust and Estate Practitioner. Only full members of STEP, the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners, can use these letters. STEP.
Experience
Steve has worked in UK financial services since 1980, in pensions, protection and estate planning. Where an answer on this site draws on that experience rather than on the law or HMRC's published guidance, its source is labelled Steve's experience.
What he writes about here
Plain English explanations of UK inheritance tax: the April 2027 change that brings unused pension funds into the estate, the nominees' annuity, whole of life assurance and trusts. Each subject has a page built around a video, with its key facts, the questions it answers and a full transcript. The biggest subjects also have a guide that answers every question, each answer with its sources.
- The nominees' annuity: every question answered: a guide, every question answered with its sources
- Pensions and inheritance tax from April 2027: every question answered: a guide, every question answered with its sources
- How will your pension be taxed when you die after April 2027?: the video, its key facts and the full transcript
- Nominees' annuity: what is it, how does it work, and what's the catch?: the video, its key facts and the full transcript
- Whole of life assurance: what is it, why does a whole generation distrust it, and what has changed?: the video, its key facts and the full transcript
LinkedIn articles behind these pages
The pages draw on Steve's LinkedIn articles, which set out his reasoning at greater length.
- Your Husband Left You A £500,000 Pension. It Could Cost Your Family £516,000 In Tax.
- One Word Dragged £1 Trillion Into Inheritance Tax. One Clause Lets You Take Yours Back Out.
- Osborne's Get Out of Jail Card Under Attack
- George Osborne Killed The Annuity Market With One Sentence. He May Have Just Saved It With Another.
- There are two certainties in life: death and taxes. After forty-six years in pensions, I think there's a third.
- 86 days, 10 hours, 5 minutes and 42 seconds
- The Pastor Who Tried to Prove God and Accidentally Predicted Death
All of Steve's articles on LinkedIn
How the answers are backed up
Every answer gives its sources, each labelled by the kind of authority it carries: the law, case law, HMRC's published view, dated provider evidence, published sources, or Steve's own analysis or experience. Where his reading goes beyond settled law, it is labelled as his analysis, with HMRC's published position beside it. Corrections are dated and logged. Sources, method and corrections.
Elsewhere
Everything on this site is education only. It is not advice, not a personal recommendation, and not an invitation to do business. Tax rules change, and nothing here takes account of your circumstances.