Trust Wills

We use the term Trusts Wills to describe arrangements giving the Trustees the discretion to manage the money in the light of the circumstances that may arise decades after you have gone, rather than being bound by a rigid plan.

The arrangement assigns the assets to a "Trust". The potential beneficiaries would generally be the children and all those who you may conceivably wish to benefit if no children of yours survived you, e.g. parents, brothers and sisters. However, none of the beneficiaries would have any valuable rights. Instead the Trustees would be free to use the money for any of them in any proportion and in any way that seemed sensible.

Such Wills are supported by Expressions of Wish, or "memoranda", which set out how the Trustees should generally act. E.g.

• Where there are young children the first call on funds would be to reimburse the Guardians all their reasonable costs - ranging from food and clothing and the incidental costs of bring up children through to the cost of a larger car and house etc.
  
• For some people it would then be important to set aside sufficient to preserve their parents' standard of living in old age - taking care not to sabotage state benefits.
  
• Subject to that, and to funding education, the presumption is usually to divide the funds equally between the children. However, because the children would not have the "right" to take, the Trustees could manage the money for them for as long as seemed sensible.
  
• Of course, once the "child" or "children" understood the responsibility that may come with a significant inheritance they may become Trustees of their own presumptive shares or take the money personally. However, if the funds were substantial the beneficiaries should be encouraged to leave the assets in Trust in so far as not required for current expenditure. That would extend tax planning options and protect against a range of misfortunes such as divorce settlements, means testing etc.
  
• The Memoranda would then say what should happen in the event that no children survived. Typically half the funds would be held for the benefit of the "husband's" parents, brothers and sisters and the other half for the "Wife's". However, as previously the funds could be used for those beneficiaries while being protected from means testing or any other misfortune.

Separately from the above, where there are children from previous marriages on both sides. There is always the risk that the surviving husband or wife may write a new Will, leaving out one set of children. Trust Wills can be arranged to protect against that risk while simultaneously enabling the Trustees to support the survivor during his or her lifetime.

A useful side effect of all that is that assets may be placed beyond the reach of Social Services should care be need in old age.

Getting in touch with County Wills (Northampton) Ltd won't cost you anything-

Call 01604 455073, or fill in the enquiry form. Alternatively you can email wills@wills.uk.net