DIVORCE and inheritance tax

[Suetheramble]

My friend has separated from her husband.They do noy divorce because they are under the impression that when they are both dead their childen will be financially better off regarding inheritance tax.
If this is so how does it work tax wise to benefit the children ?

[dzug]

Don't see that it really makes any difference.

If they stay married, when the first one dies, the second can inherit everything with no IHT and without using any of the IHT limit.

Then when the second dies, the children inherit using two lots of tax free bands.

But whether they stay married or not, the children can inherit on the first death with the benefit of one IHT allowance, and again on the second with a second allowance.

Where it could help (waiting for both deaths) is if one of the couple is significantly richer than the other. There might be IHT at the first death if the children inherited then