I have a business endowment mortgage for £30,000. I pay £160 per month
interest and £160 per month to the endowment. I recently received an
inheritance which would allow me to pay off the mortgage. I pay tax at
40%. It has 10 years to run and is on amber alert.I can set the
interest against tax at present. What should I do

I think the tax is a red herring
- you would be able to find a tax efficient method of saving

Currently you are paying 6.4% on a loan of £30,000
I doubt that you could find that if you decided to invest your £30,000 elsewhere

I'm also unsure about the endowment policy
- you'll be paying in £19,200 to get a return of probably less than £30,000
- very crudely they will be holding an average of £10,000 for 10 years
- which at say 5% is £500 x 10 = £5000
- it is probably a good idea to check its current value
It might be a good deal if you pay the endowment pre-tax

You need a competent UK based financial adviser
- preferably one(s) who cannot benefit from you.

drhouse You do not mention your age, which is a very important point
as you may be abe to offset a lot of your tax against a pension saving
scheme

With the state of the UK pensions industry, I would be very wary of
getting locked into anything like that

Although Self Adminstered schemes could be interesting