After a Business Sale – Investing, Inheritance Tax Planning and Protecting Your Wealth

Posted: 20th August 2026

Selling your business is a major milestone. After years of hard work, you may suddenly find yourself with significant cash proceeds and an important question:

What should you do next?

Many business owners understandably focus on achieving the best sale price, but surprisingly little attention is often given to what happens after completion. Good exit planning does not stop when the deal is signed: decisions made during the months following a sale can have a lasting impact on your family’s wealth and the amount of tax ultimately paid.

With careful planning, you can protect your assets, support future generations and make your wealth work as efficiently as possible.

Don’t Rush Into Investment Decisions

It is common to receive approaches from investment managers and financial advisers soon after a business sale. While professional advice is valuable, there is rarely a need to make immediate investment decisions.

Instead, take time to consider:

your income requirements;
your retirement plans;
future business ventures;
your appetite for investment risk;
support you wish to provide to family members; and
your long-term estate planning objectives.

A clear financial plan should come before selecting investment products.

Review Your Inheritance Tax Position

One of the biggest changes following the sale of a trading business is that cash does not usually qualify for the valuable inheritance tax reliefs that may previously have applied to business assets.

This means your estate could become significantly more exposed to Inheritance Tax.

A review should include:

the value of your estate;
existing wills;
lifetime gifts already made;
available nil rate bands;
pension arrangements;
ownership of the family home; and
the likely inheritance tax position on both first and second death.

Understanding your exposure is the first step towards effective planning.

Consider Lifetime Giving

Many business owners wish to help children or grandchildren once the sale has completed.

Lifetime gifts can:

assist children with house purchases;
help fund education;
support new businesses;
reduce future inheritance tax exposure; and
allow family members to benefit from wealth when they are most likely to need it.

Large gifts require careful planning, particularly where you wish to retain sufficient assets to maintain your own standard of living.

Are Trusts Appropriate?

Trusts continue to play an important role in estate planning for many families.

Depending on your circumstances, trusts may help:

protect family wealth;
provide for younger beneficiaries;
safeguard vulnerable beneficiaries;
preserve assets following divorce; and
control how wealth passes through future generations.

The choice of trust and the associated tax implications require careful consideration.

Family Investment Companies

Many business owners are now considering Family Investment Companies (FICs) as part of their long-term succession planning.

A FIC can provide:

centralised management of family investments;
flexibility over distributions;
opportunities to involve the next generation;
potential inheritance tax planning benefits; and
continued control by the founders while gradually passing value to younger family members.

Whether a FIC is appropriate depends on your objectives, the value of your estate and the nature of your investments.

Review Your Pension Planning

Following the sale of a business, pension planning often becomes more important.

You may wish to consider:

maximising pension contributions where appropriate;
reviewing existing pension investments;
retirement income planning;
pension death benefits; and
how pensions fit into your wider estate planning strategy.

Pensions remain one of the most tax-efficient ways to accumulate wealth for many individuals, although contribution limits and other tax rules should always be considered.

Protect Your Family

A business sale is also a good opportunity to review:

your will;
lasting powers of attorney;
shareholder agreements in any remaining businesses;
life assurance arrangements; and
succession planning for your wider family.

These documents should reflect your new financial circumstances.

Beware of Tax Scams and Aggressive Planning

Individuals who have recently sold a business are often targeted with schemes claiming to eliminate tax or generate unrealistic investment returns.

If something appears too good to be true, it usually is.

Professional advice from trusted advisers is the best protection against expensive mistakes.

Develop a Long-Term Wealth Strategy

Rather than viewing the sale proceeds as a single investment decision, consider developing a long-term strategy that balances:

income;
capital growth;
tax efficiency;
asset protection;
charitable giving;
family succession; and
flexibility for future opportunities.

A coordinated approach generally produces better outcomes than making individual decisions in isolation.

Common Mistakes We See

Following the sale of a business, common mistakes include:

delaying inheritance tax planning until much later in retirement;
failing to update wills and powers of attorney;
making large gifts without considering future financial needs;
investing without a clear strategy;
overlooking the tax consequences of different investment structures; and
assuming the planning that worked while the business was owned remains appropriate after it has been sold.

Early planning is usually more effective and provides a wider range of options.

How RJP LLP Can Help

The completion of a business sale marks the beginning of a new financial chapter rather than the end of the journey.

At RJP LLP, we help clients make the most of that opportunity by providing advice on:

inheritance tax planning;
lifetime gifting strategies;
trusts and succession planning;
Family Investment Companies;
tax-efficient investment structures;
pension planning in conjunction with independent financial advisers;
estate planning; and
ongoing tax compliance and wealth preservation.

We also work closely with solicitors, investment managers and independent financial advisers to ensure your tax planning is fully aligned with your wider financial objectives.

Selling a business is often the largest financial transaction of your lifetime. With careful planning after completion, you can help ensure that the wealth you have created benefits both you and future generations.

If you have recently sold your business, or are planning to do so, speak to your usual RJP LLP adviser about developing a long-term strategy to protect your wealth and minimise future tax liabilities.