28 January 2026
If you are covering the House of Lords Economic Affairs Finance Bill Sub-Committee’s report on the Government’s pensions inheritance tax rules, please find a comment below from Jon Greer, head of retirement planning at Quilter:
“The Lords’ report rightly shines a light on a problem the government has so far underestimated. Asking personal representatives, often a family member or friend dealing with an estate for the first time, to identify, value and pay inheritance tax on pension assets within six months, frequently without having control over those assets or timely information from multiple scheme administrators, is a recipe for delay, confusion and unintended penalties.
"The call for a statutory safe harbour is sensible and long overdue. Executors who can demonstrate they have taken reasonable steps to comply should not be hit with interest charges simply because they are waiting on third parties to provide information or release funds. That would be deeply unfair and risks turning an already demanding role into a costly and stressful exercise.
"Extending the payment deadline to 12 months for pension assets during a transitional period would also reflect the reality of how estates are administered and give schemes time to update their processes.
"It is also crucial that the government learns the lessons from the chaotic implementation of the abolition of the lifetime allowance. If it is determined to press ahead with bringing pensions into the inheritance tax net, it must ensure both the policy design and the industry infrastructure are genuinely ready. If that requires a delay, then so be it. It is far better to have all the ducks in a row than to push through half-baked policy on the fly, with families, executors and advisers left to pick up the pieces."
