What is a Trust Will?
A Trust Will is a legal statement that you include in your will to ensure that property/assets are left to your loved ones, allowing them to benefit from them whilst not owning them. A Trustee, or trustees who is/are capable of managing the Trust on behalf of the beneficiaries needs to be appointed.
There are several advantages to using a Trust Will: you retain control of your assets without giving them away and there may be tax benefits also.
If a beneficiary has physical or mental disabilities or other special needs then you may be able to use A Vulnerable Person’s Trust in your will. This instrument, which is treated favourably from a tax perspective, allows you to provide for a vulnerable person’s care without gifting to them directly. Money is provided to trustees who are charged with applying it to the care of the vulnerable person, while the trust persists. Since this gift doesn’t pass directly into their possession any benefits, they receive are preserved.
The most common reasons for using will-trusts are:
- You wish to protect your estate from care fees in the future
- You have a spouse/partner but children from a previous relationship
- You wish to leave some of your estate to a vulnerable person.
Can you legally protect your estate from care fees in the future?
The answer is, that if you own your property with a loved one or spouse, you may be able to safeguard at least of half of the value of your home for the next generation, by changing the way you and your Spouse/Partner own the home from ‘joint tenants‘ to ‘tenants in common’. As ‘tenants in common’, each of you are able to safeguard your share of the property via trusts in each’s will. If one of you needs to go into residential care, which can be very expensive and likely to get even more so with rising costs, the protected portion of the home is excluded from means testing. As with all legalities, it is advisable to seek professional advice from a qualified Will Writer at Confidence Wills.
How to provide for a spouse or partner and protect your own children’s inheritance.
It is really important to be aware of the fact that any marriage (almost always) automatically revokes any existing will that you have in place. If you don’t make a new will the rules of intestacy will kick in which would mean that your new spouse inherits all your personal possessions and approximately the first £270,000 of your estate plus 50% of the rest, which may mean your children inherit nothing.
By creating a trust will you may protect your assets for the benefit of your children. This demonstrates the importance of not just making a Will but structuring it correctly according to your personal circumstances, especially when they change.
As a company we uphold the highest standards and are happy to address any concerns you may have, without obligation. Please don’t hesitate to call us if you need advice or assistance our website can be found at www.www.hlww.co.uk .