Yes. If you are worth more than the inheritance tax threshold (or ‘nil rate band’) of £325,000 when you die, there is a potential liability to inheritance tax at 40 per cent on the excess over that figure.
There is usually no inheritance tax on anything you leave to your spouse or civil partner. But if you leave them everything, their estate will be correspondingly bigger when they die, and so may become liable to inheritance tax that could have been avoided.
You may be able to save unnecessary inheritance tax by leaving some of your estate direct to your children or grandchildren instead. Putting assets in a trust — for your spouse, civil partner, children or grandchildren, for example — can also reduce inheritance tax.