There are many reasons to set up trusts but essentially they do two things, firstly protecting assets for beneficiaries and secondly saving you or your estate money.
A will trust is as it’s title describes a trust within a will which comes into effect on the death or the testator/testatrix. They are commonly used to protect property, or to protect assets for children or to bypass a spouse. Our most popular will trust is the property protection trust.
A family asset trust or lifetime trust is specifically designed to protect your assets during your lifetime. They give the peace of mind that many of us look for, knowing that our estate can be passed on securely and intact to our spouse or our children or both.
A trust can protect your hard earned gains such as property and savings in a number of ways, or from a number of perspectives. Assets in a trust are protected from probate fees, from claims due to relationship failure, from business debts and claims against your estate and more.
Asset trusts can save your estate money, probate is negated and inheritance tax liabilities reduced in some instances. Assets within a trust will not come under Court of Protection control should you lose capacity and avoid the costs involved of regaining some of that control.
A consultation ensuring the right type of trust(s) is/are chosen. There are straight forward will trusts or more involved stand alone asset trusts.
Once the appropriate trust(s) has/have been selected a questionnaire is completed to collect the content and your instructions for your will or for the asset trust.
We create robust legal documents for our clients including wills, lasting powers of attorney, asset trusts and more, working at your convenience to make it easy in this busy world!
You must not set up a trust to primarily avoid care fees as this could be viewed as deprevation of assets. However, a will trust can protect half of your property and the contents of an asset trust would belong to the trust and not you, so yes, but talk to your consultant for clarity.
A trust can last for 125 years, so the elements placed within your trust can continue to benefit your family and your families family long after you are gone.
You would be named as the ‘Principle Beneficiary’ of the Asset Trust and would retain full control of the assets within the Trust while you are alive and have mental capacity. Then your trustees, who you select. read more