School fees planning in Hertfordshire & Essex

The true cost of a private education

A private education is one of the largest financial commitments many families make, often running for more than a decade and sometimes for more than one child at once. Fees usually rise each year, extras such as uniform, trips, lunches and music add to the bill, and since January 2025 most school fees have carried VAT. Seeing the total, year by year, is the first step to planning for it.

How we model school and university costs

Our planning system includes a school and university planner that builds a timeline for each child from their date of birth:

• Each stage of education: nursery, prep or primary, senior school, sixth form and university, choosing state or private for each.
• Fees in today’s money, using typical fees for each stage or your chosen school’s own figures.
• Fee rises each year, VAT where it applies, and an allowance for extras.
• Sibling discounts, bursaries and scholarships, where relevant.
• University costs: tuition and living costs, the share you expect to pay, and student loans.
• A year-by-year table showing the cost of each academic year, how much is VAT, who is paying, and the year when costs peak.

Ways to pay for school fees

Once we know the likely cost, we look at how to meet it. The planner compares three broad approaches:

• A lump sum invested today, designed to cover the fees as they fall due.
• Regular monthly saving from now until the fees start or end.
• Paying each year as it comes from income or savings.

Most families use a mix. Money can come from savings, investments such as ISAs, help from grandparents and, in some cases, other family resources. Investments can fall as well as rise, so money needed in the next few years is often better held more cautiously than money needed in ten years’ time. Our planner’s illustrations are before tax and charges and assume a steady return, which real investments will not deliver.

Grandparents helping with school fees

Many grandparents would like to help, and paying towards school fees can also reduce the value of their own estate for inheritance tax. When grandparents are our clients, we can model their contributions and treat them as gifts: within the £3,000 annual exemption, as regular gifts out of surplus income, or as larger gifts that usually fall outside the estate after seven years. Their own cash flow plan checks they can afford to give without affecting their own future, and the gifts can feed into their inheritance tax planning.

Seeing the effect on the rest of your plans

School fees do not happen in isolation. The same years are often when you are paying a mortgage, saving into pensions and thinking about retirement. Because the school fees planner links to your cash flow plan, we can show your household investments with and without the education costs, so you can see what the choice means for your retirement and other goals.

VAT on private school fees

From 1 January 2025, the government removed the VAT exemption for private schools, so education and boarding fees are now charged at the standard rate of 20%. Some schools have absorbed part of the increase and others have passed it on in full, which is why we always use your school’s actual fee where possible and allow for VAT separately in the plan.

Start early

The earlier you plan, the more choice you have. Starting when children are young allows smaller regular savings, a longer time for investments to grow and room to adjust if circumstances change. Even if fees are only a year or two away, a clear plan helps you decide which money to use and when.

School fees planning near you

We are independent, whole-of-market financial advisers based in Roydon, near Harlow, helping parents and grandparents in Harlow, Hertfordshire and Essex, and across the UK, in person or by video.

Related pages

• Cash flow planning
• Inheritance tax planning
• Investment advice
• Protection
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