Protective Property Trust
You may wish to include a Protective Property Trust in your Will if:
- You do not wish to leave your share of your property to your Partner but would like to give them the right to live in the property for the rest of their lives, before the property passes to your children.
A Protective Property Trust in your Will can contain a provision that upon your death, your share of the property is put in trust allowing your partner to continue to live in the property for his/her lifetime, but upon his/her death, to be given to your children. In this way, you can make provision for your partner, whilst protecting your share of the property for your children. - You are worried that you may need nursing home care in the future, when your local authority may have the right to sell your home and use the proceeds to meet the costs of your care. You cannot transfer your property to relatives to avoid paying nursing home fees, without falling foul of the law, but you can include a Protective Property Trust in your Will, containing instructions that upon the death of you or your spouse, that half share of the property is put in trust for your children, instead of passing direct to the surviving spouse. In this way, the half share of the property that has been put in trust is protected and the surviving spouse may continue to live in the property. That half share cannot be taken by the local authority for care home fees. On the death of the surviving spouse, the half share of the property owned by the trust can be given to the children.
- Joint tenancy - this is where the parties own a property together and upon the death of one person the property automatically passes to the survivor whatever the will says.
- Tenancy in common - this is where each person owns part of the property in their own right and can leave their share to whoever they like.
If your property is held as a joint tenancy then it will be necessary to change this to a tenancy in common - we can do this for you
Accumulation and Maintenance Trust
If you have children, you may wish to make provision for them, in case you should you pass away before they reach 18. If this is the case, you may wish to include an Accumulation and Maintenance Trust in your Will. In this way, you can appoint both Trustees and Guardians for your children, with your Trustees providing funds to your Guardians, for the care of your children until they reach 18. An Accumulation and Maintenance Trust can be established either during your lifetime or as a provision in your Will, to be set up after your death.
Discretionary Trust
A Discretionary Trust is a very versatile Trust and can be used for many purposes, either during your lifetime or as a provision in your Will.
You will decide upon and appoint Trustees and beneficiaries for the Trust and you will decide what assets you wish to put into the Trust. Your appointed Trustees will then administer the Trust on behalf of your appointed beneficiaries. However, you should be aware, that assets put into a Trust, belong to the Trust, they do not belong to your appointed beneficiaries and if you are setting up a lifetime trust you cannot get assets back, once you have put them into the Trust. We can advise you on this.
The reason that the Trust assets do not belong to your appointed beneficiaries is because the Trustees of a Discretionary Trust have the discretion to decide how the Trust assets are used and are under no obligation to treat all your beneficiaries equally. Choice of Trustees is very important. As Solicitors regulated by the SRA we can be appointed to give you confidence that your wishes will be dealt with.
If one of your beneficiaries is claiming welfare benefits, their benefits will not be affected by their being the beneficiary of a Discretionary Trust.