What is a trust will?

A trust is an arrangement which can form part of your will and can provide further protection of the assets for your loved ones. Wills containing trusts are known as trust wills. We at all times would advise you to consider the benefits of incorporating a trust into your will. They most frequently occur in the following situations:

• you want your estate to be protected from possible care fees in the future
• You are married or live with someone, but have children from a previous relationship.
• you wish to leave part of your estate to a beneficiary who is vulnerable or disabled

We create tailor-made trusts to help you:

• Minimise inheritance tax
• Keep your family home in the family
• Put in place a business succession strategy
• Prevent assets from being used to fund long-term care
• Ring-fence your children’s or grandchildren’s inheritance
• Ensure young children don’t inherit before they become adults
• Provide for vulnerable loved ones without affecting their benefits

Property Trust Wills

If you have a property and wish to ensure its value is best protected for future generations, a property trust will give you more confidence.

A property trust will can provide a trust in your will that looks after your property or your share of it. You would appoint trustees to manage the trust, but the terms of the trust enable you to allow someone-ordinarily either a spouse or civil partner-the right to benefit from the trust during their lifetime.

This means they could either live in the property that’s contained in the trust or receive a rental income from it. If, on the other hand, the trust contains cash because the property in the trust has been sold, then they have a right to receive the income generated from the trust during their lifetime.

Benefits of a property trust will

• guarantees who benefits from your share of the property if your surviving spouse or civil partner:
• remarries after you die, – marriage automatically cancels any wills that were in place
• draws up a new will after you have passed away with different wishes to those stated originally
• can help, for future generations, in mitigating the possible effect of residential care fees on the value of the property

Who is a property trust will suitable for?

A trust will may be used by:

• Those who own property with somebody else, married or civil partner, and:
• wishes to protect the property value for one or more loved ones in the future
• wishes to protect the property value from potential residential care fees should one of the partners require care in the future

A property trust will suits married/civil partnership couples. You will, however be able to make a discretionary trust if you are not married.

Flexible life interest trust wills

A flexible life interest trust will is much like a property trust will, except that this type allows you to put the entirety or only a portion of your estate into the will trust, instead of just your house.

A flexible life interest trust will may be able to help you if you have significant assets or investments in addition to property and would like to protect their value for future generations.

A life interest trust allows someone to have the benefit of a life interest in your property or any other assets, yet not necessarily those assets leaving your estate. For example, if in your will you have created a life interest trust and your house has been placed into this, then the holder of the life interest could remain in the property for the rest of their life but upon his death, it would then be distributed according to the terms of your will.

A life interest trust can be a good method of providing for a loved one during his or her lifetime while preserving the value of your assets for your future generations.

Benefits of a flexible life interest trust will

A flexible life interest trust will guarantees who benefits from cash assets and investments as well as property if your surviving spouse or civil partner:

• remarries after your death-it must be noted that marriage automatically makes any existing wills null and void
• makes a new will after your death which changes their original intentions

This type of will also enables any appointee to receive the benefit of any income produced by your investments in the event of your death, whilst at the same time this safeguards the capital value for future generations.

Who is Eligible to Take Advantage of a Flexible Life Interest Trust Will?

Someone may benefit from a flexible life interest trust will if he or she holds cash assets and investments in their sole name and:

• desire to look after a nominated person- most usually a surviving spouse- but protect the value of the assets for named loved ones in the longer term
• desire to protect the value of the investments for future generations

Discretionary trust wills

A discretionary trust will further allow you to appoint trustees to manage inheritance on behalf of vulnerable loved ones that need help.

You can use a discretionary trust will to place your estate or a part of it into a trust created in your will and managed by whomever you name as trustees. Then, you name the potential beneficiaries of the trust and leave it to your trustees’ discretion as to which of the potential beneficiaries actually gets a benefit from the trust, when and how.

Benefits of a discretionary trust will

Heading: A discretionary trust will:

• provides vulnerable beneficiaries with assistance in dealing with their inheritance
• protects the beneficiary’s entitlement to state benefits because there is less risk of such benefits being lost on the beneficiary receiving an inheritance
• can help unmarried couples to achieve their goals in terms of Inheritance Tax

Who may benefit from discretionary trust will?

Anybody who wishes to leave an inheritance to:

• relatives who either have mental or physical incapacity to handle their affairs
• family members who have a disability and face the possibility of losing state benefit entitlements as a result of their inheritance
• beneficiaries who are in a position of vulnerability, or who cannot manage their finances for themselves