Trusts

 Your family home is a special asset with protected rights. By creating a Protected Property Trust in your will, you can place your share of the home into a trust for your beneficiaries. Everything is flexible for you to decide. It safeguards your share of the house if your partner remarries after your death, ensuring your legacy benefits those you intended. It provides protection if your children face financial difficulties or divorce, securing their future. 

Place your share investments and savings into a trust for your beneficiaries. This flexible trust often provides an immediate benefit to your spouse, allowing them to receive income generated from the trust while protecting the capital. Additionally, it safeguards the assets if your children face divorce or bankruptcy. Like a Protected Property Trust, it safeguards your assets if your partner remarries, ensuring your assets are distributed as you intended.

  Transferring business assets upon death involves the risk that if the beneficiary dies within two years, the assets may not qualify for business relief and could be subject to 40% inheritance tax. This risk is mitigated by holding the assets in a trust. Beneficiaries can use their own funds to purchase shares from the trust, thereby converting taxable cash into qualifying assets, and can borrow funds tax-free. This approach provides significant opportunities for tax savings on the value of business assets. 

 Creating this trust in your will can help preserve the residential nil rate band of £175,000 (or £350,000 for a couple), potentially saving 40% of £175,000 (£70,000) in inheritance tax. By structuring the trust as an interest-free loan, you can also avoid the 10-year charge of 6%. Even if the estate exceeds £2 million and does not qualify for the nil rate band on the second death, this strategy ensures the benefit is realised on the first death. Thus, you achieve a 40% tax saving on £175,000 (£70,000), while your spouse receives the money as a loan, ensuring no financial disadvantage. 

This trust is created while you're living and ensures your family home goes to your beneficiaries, even if your spouse remarries.  Owners transfer the property into a trust, ensuring it remains for the children. The surviving spouse can move house while protecting the capital. The property is controlled by trustees, so if the beneficiary requires care, the local authority cannot place a charge on the property. This saves interest at a fixed rate. The property can be sold without going through probate, simplifying the sale process. 

 Just as a Life Time Interest Trust safeguards your home, this trust is designed to protect your investments. By establishing this trust during your lifetime and designating yourself and your beneficiaries as nominees, you can effectively plan for taxes and potentially save significant amounts on inheritance tax. This proactive approach offers advantages that are not available if your beneficiaries are merely attorneys managing your estate.