Graeme Stewart here — the person behind The Giving Ledger.
I spent over ten years working as an estate planner, visiting three to four clients a day. Gifting from surplus income came up several times a week — it's one of the most useful tools there is for reducing inheritance tax, but also one of the most misunderstood. Most people got the idea right and the paperwork wrong, and it was almost always their executors who found that out, after it was too late to do anything about it.
I built The Giving Ledger because that gap always bothered me. A tax specialist can charge you thousands of pounds to set this up properly — but the actual process, once you know it, isn't complicated. I wanted to put together a clear, affordable toolkit that lets you do it yourself properly, without the confusion or the price tag.
The Giving Ledger is built on ten years of hands-on estate planning experience, but it's still educational information and practical record-keeping tools — a guide, letter templates, and a spreadsheet — rather than personalised financial, tax, or legal advice. I'm not a solicitor, accountant, or FCA-regulated financial adviser, and for anything unusually complex, it's worth speaking to one alongside using this pack.
Questions before you buy, or anything unclear once you have — email hello@thegivingledger.co.uk. I read and answer these myself.