Trusts
Trusts can be used to protect assets both during lifetime and after death and may be used for tax and planning purposes, or to support minors and vulnerable individuals.
Safeguarding your assets
Trusts can help with estate management and inheritance tax planning, as well as protecting assets and ensuring they will be available for future generations.
Our areas of expertise include:
- Advice on the type of trust appropriate to your circumstances
- Setting up the trust
- Advising Trustees on their duties and responsibilities
- Taxation of trusts – Capital Gains, Inheritance and Income tax and Trust Tax Returns
- Changing Trustees
- Administering the trust including, Minutes and Resolutions of Meetings, Investment Policy Statements and preparing Trust Accounts
- Ending a Trust
Protect your wealth for future generations.
There are many different types of trust which may be beneficial to your circumstances.
Property Trusts
These are used to set out your respective shares in property, your rights and responsibilities with a view to avoiding future disagreements about ownership. They are suitable where a parent or adult child decide to buy or extend a property in which they both live or for unmarried couples wishing to protect their contributions to the purchase price.
Discretionary Trusts
Discretionary trusts are sometimes set up to put assets aside for a future need, like a grandchild who may need more financial help than other beneficiaries at some point in their life or beneficiaries who are not capable or responsible enough to deal with money themselves.
Providing flexibility as to beneficiaries, when payments are made and how much, they can also assist with mitigating inheritance tax and protecting assets from nursing or residential home fees.
Life Interest Trusts
A Life Interest Trust is usually set up when someone has a husband, wife or partner who is currently residing with them and they want to ensure they can continue to live in the property once they have died but they do not want the whole of their estate to pass to them.
Disabled Person Trusts
Used to provide for vulnerable beneficiaries with specified mental and/or physical conditions. This type of trust can have advantageous tax treatment.
Get in Touch
Speak to our team of expert advisors for transparent, honest and jargon-free support.
Frequently Asked Questions
A trust is a legal instrument that allows someone to give away assets in an efficient way. Whilst a trust will often be used to make gifts of shares, cash, land and bricks-and-mortar property it can also be used to hold a life assurance policy for the benefit of beneficiaries nominated by the policyholder.
Trusts can be established for a fixed period, known as a fixed-term trust, or can be ongoing with no predetermined end date, though this is capped at a maximum of 125 years for trusts created after 5 April 2010. The Trust deed will specify the duration and conditions under which the trust will terminate.
A letter of wishes sits alongside the trust deed. It often includes information about your loved one’s interests and preferences, and family connections. It guides trustee decisions, but is not legally binding.
A letter of wishes can be updated throughout the lifetime of the settlor, as often as they wish.
Making a gift to the trust during your lifetime, is called a lifetime settlement.
A lifetime settlement gives parents the opportunity to see the Trust Company in action, and allows them to help their loved one learn how to use the trust well. We have seen how the death of a parent can end the way of life the beneficiary knew, particularly when living in the family home. A lifetime settlement ensures we have resources to support your loved one straight away. However, if you decide not to make a lifetime settlement, a solicitor can advise on other ways of providing cash for the period between death and granting of probate.
