Estate Planning in Dorset
Dorset estates tend to be land-rich and cash-light. A farmhouse, a few acres, a holiday cottage that's been let through the family for thirty years, perhaps a small business that started as a side project. The numbers on paper look comfortable. The numbers HMRC sees, particularly after April 2026's changes to Agricultural and Business Property Relief, increasingly do not.
Agricultural and Business Property Relief is no longer a blanket shield
From April 2026, the unlimited 100% relief that protected farms and family businesses for forty years is capped. The first £1m of qualifying assets keeps full relief. Everything above it is reduced to 50% — meaning an effective 20% IHT charge on the excess.
A 200-acre Dorset farm with farmhouse, outbuildings and machinery rarely values at less than £3m. Under the post-April-2026 rules, roughly £2m of that sits in the new restricted band. The IHT bill on a single death now looks more like £400,000 than zero — payable, in cash, by a family whose wealth is in soil and stone.
The rules also catch family businesses that have grown beyond the £1m line. A successful local trade — building, hospitality, manufacturing — passing to the next generation now generates a tax event the previous generation never had to plan for.
There are routes through this. Lifetime gifting, the use of trusts, restructuring trading and investment elements, life cover written in trust to fund the bill without selling the asset. None of them are quick. All of them need the structural decisions made now, not in 2027.
Why Dorset estates are different
Dorset has one of the oldest populations in England, and a disproportionate number of its estates are built around land rather than cash. Farms around Blandford, Sherborne and the Purbecks have often been in the same family for two or three generations, and until recently, Agricultural Property Relief and Business Property Relief meant that land and working business assets could pass down largely free of Inheritance Tax. That changed in April 2026. Estates that once assumed full relief on farmland and business assets now face a partial charge above the new combined allowance, and many families are only discovering this when it is too late to plan around it. The other pattern we see constantly in Dorset is the holiday letting income problem. A cottage that has generated steady rental income for thirty years is not automatically treated the same way as a business for tax purposes, and the rules on what counts as genuinely trading versus simply owning an investment property are strict and frequently misunderstood. Add a second or third generation who may not want to farm or run the letting business at all, and the succession question becomes as much about family agreement as it is about tax. We work with Dorset families to establish, in plain terms, what the estate would actually owe today under current rules, whether the land and business assets still qualify for relief, and what structures, gifting, trusts, or a change in ownership, could reduce that liability while keeping the family's control over the land intact.
Farm succession
The classic Dorset farm-succession problem — one child wants to farm, the others don't, and the parents want to be fair — has just become harder. Equalising inheritances by leaving non-farming children a cash sum used to be straightforward. Under the new APR rules it can force the sale of the very land you wanted to keep in the family. We work with farming families to redesign the succession before the tax change forces an outcome no one wanted.
Holiday lets and FHL changes
The Furnished Holiday Letting regime is being abolished in April 2025, removing the favourable treatment many Dorset coastal-cottage owners relied on. This affects both income tax and the availability of Business Property Relief on the property at death. If you own holiday accommodation in Lyme Regis, Swanage, West Bay or anywhere along the Jurassic Coast, the planning that worked last year may not work this year.
Rural property and Property Trusts
A farmhouse passed outright to a surviving spouse becomes fully assessable for that spouse's care fees if they later need residential care. A Property Trust written into the first will protects the deceased's share — typically half — for the children, regardless of what happens to the survivor.
Where we typically come in
Inheritance Tax Planning
Specifically structured around the April 2026 APR/BPR cap and the April 2027 pension change. For Dorset estates, this is now the primary work.
Read more →Property Trusts
Protect the farmhouse, the family home or the holiday cottage from care fees and from passing outright to a surviving spouse who may later remarry.
Read more →Wills
Rural and farming wills need clauses high-street will writers rarely include — life-interest trusts, business succession provisions, and clear separation of trading and investment assets.
Read more →Living Trusts
Hold land, a business interest or investment portfolio outside the probate process and outside the estate of the next generation, on terms you set.
Read more →What we'd actually do for you
Most Dorset estates need three things looked at: the structure of the land, the structure of the will, and the route through the 2026 and 2027 changes. We do that work in plain English, with real numbers, on your assets — not on a generic example. If your existing arrangements are sound, we'll tell you. If they're not, you'll leave the first conversation knowing exactly what's exposed and what it would take to fix it.
Complete the Discovery first - then we'll book your free 30-minute consultation.
Common questions from clients in Dorset
We're a working farm — do you understand APR and BPR?
Yes. The April 2026 cap is the single largest piece of IHT work for Dorset farming families right now, and the planning lead time is short. We coordinate with land agents and farm accountants where needed.
I have a holiday cottage on the Jurassic Coast — what's changed?
The Furnished Holiday Letting regime ends April 2025. The property loses its favourable income-tax and capital-allowances treatment, and any Business Property Relief that depended on it being a trading asset is reduced or lost. We can model the impact on your specific property and tell you the options.
Do I need to come to your office to work with you?
No. We work nationally — and increasingly internationally. Most of our clients in Dorset are seen by video call, with documents signed remotely or couriered when wet signatures are needed. The advice is the same. The convenience is yours.
Is Sean Kiani regulated?
Sean Kiani is a member of the Society of Will Writers and holds full Professional Indemnity Insurance. Estate planning is unregulated in the UK — which is precisely why credentials, supervision and indemnity matter.
What does a first conversation cost?
Nothing. A first call is free, confidential, and exists for one purpose: to find out whether your current arrangements still do what you think they do. If they do, we'll tell you. If they don't, you'll know exactly what's exposed and what to do about it.
The issues we most commonly help Dorset families solve
Other UK areas we serve
Your 30 minutes. Simple. Yours.
No-obligation.
The path is simple: complete the Discovery first so we walk into the call already knowing the facts. Then in 30 focused minutes, I listen, answer your questions, and you choose if you'd like us to draw up your Inheritance Plan.
1. Start Your Discovery
Required first step. Complete the confidential financial position review so your no-obligation 30-minute consultation starts with the facts, not the basics.
2. Request a Callback
Prefer to speak first? Leave your details and we'll call you back to talk through the Discovery before you complete it.
You choose the date, time, and format - phone or online. Bring anyone you'd like.