Trust savings calculator
Answer four questions and see the allowances your estate can use, the inheritance tax that would be due today, and how much of your home a property protection trust could ring-fence. Nothing is stored, and you do not need to give us your details to see the result.
Your result
£—
Fill in your figures and we'll show the allowances your estate can use, the inheritance tax that would be due today, and how much of your home a property protection trust could ring-fence.
Figures from GOV.UK and HMRC, last checked 6 April 2026 (2026/27 tax year).
This is an illustrative estimate, not advice or a guarantee. It uses the figures you typed and the standard allowances for England & Wales. It cannot see your family, your wills, your pensions, gifts you have already made, business or agricultural property, or anything else that changes the answer.
Trusts cost money to set up and to run, need trustees who take on real legal duties, and have their own tax rules — many face an entry charge of up to 20%, a ten-yearly charge of up to 6%, and exit charges. For plenty of families, a well-written will and claiming the allowances properly does the same job for less. Anyone who tells you a trust is always the answer is selling something.
Planning has to be genuine estate planning. If you give away assets or move them into a trust and a council decides you did it mainly to avoid care fees, it can treat you as still owning them, and in some cases recover money from whoever received it. These are the deliberate deprivation of assets rules, and there is no time limit on them.
The protection shown here comes from a property protection trust in a will, which takes effect on death — not from giving your home away in your lifetime. We will never tell you to hide assets, and you should walk away from anyone who does.
Allowances, thresholds and rates change at Budgets. Everything here reflects the 2026/27 tax year for England & Wales, last checked 6 April 2026. Scotland and Northern Ireland differ.
How this calculator works#
It applies the standard allowances for England & Wales to the figures you enter, using the same values published on GOV.UK and HMRC. Nothing is hidden and nothing is estimated behind the scenes:
- Nil-rate band: £325,000 per person. Married couples, civil partners and widowed people can use two, because unused allowance transfers.
- Residence nil-rate band: up to £175,000 per person if the home passes to direct descendants — capped at the value of the home, and tapered by £1 for every £2 of estate above £2,000,000.
- Inheritance tax: 40% on whatever is left above the allowances.
- Care-fee protection: for couples who own a home, a property protection trust can ring-fence the first partner's share — modelled at 50% of the home's value.
Couples are modelled at the second death, which is the standard planning view and the conservative one: the taper is tested against the whole combined estate.
What it deliberately does not do#
- It does not account for gifts you have already made, business or agricultural property relief, pensions, life policies written in trust, or assets held outside the UK.
- It does not model giving assets away — that is what the deliberate deprivation of assets rules exist to catch.
- It does not tell you whether a trust is right for you. That depends on your family, not your figures.
What to do with the number#
Treat it as a prompt, not a plan. If it shows tax due, the first fixes are usually free: making sure the wills allow the residence allowance, and making sure executors claim the transferable band. If it shows a meaningful share of your home could be protected, the next step is checking whether you own it as tenants in common — see property protection trusts.
And if it shows no tax due and no protection available, that is a useful result too: you probably do not need to buy anything.
Frequently asked questions
Is this calculator accurate?
It applies the current published allowances correctly to the figures you enter, and the calculation is unit-tested. It is not a substitute for advice: it cannot see gifts you have made, reliefs you may qualify for, pensions, or how your wills are actually drafted — all of which change the answer.
Do you store what I enter?
No. The figures are used to calculate your result and are not saved to any database. If you then choose to talk to an expert, we pass the estate total and headline figure across so you do not have to repeat yourself — and only then.
Why does it say a couple can protect more than a single person?
Two reasons. Married couples and civil partners transfer unused allowances, so up to two nil-rate bands and two residence bands are available. And a property protection trust works on the first death of a couple — a single owner has no first death to trigger it.
What is "the value of claiming every allowance"?
The difference between the tax due using a single nil-rate band — which is what happens if nobody claims anything — and the tax due using every allowance you are entitled to. Transferable allowances have to be claimed by executors, and the residence allowance depends on the home passing to direct descendants, which depends on how the wills are written.
Does it work for Scotland or Northern Ireland?
The inheritance tax part applies UK-wide. The care-fee thresholds are England's, and succession law differs in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Treat the care figures as England-only.
This is general information, not legal advice. Everyone's situation is different — speak to a qualified adviser before acting. KeepTheLot is an independent information service covering England & Wales. We are not a law firm.