How can this Trust help You?

As a couple (married/civil partner or not) you can arrange your Wills to protect your assets. A large proportion of a couple’s estates their property, you can protect your 50% share by placing it into a Trust on your death.
Rather than leaving everything to each other, your share will be placed into Trust with your spouse/partner named as the ‘Life Tenant’ which allows them to carry on living in your share of the family home just as if you had left your share to them.

The Trust can give flexibility:

• To sell the house and buy another (downsize to a smaller property);
• Lend money to the Life Tenant;
• To view the needs of the spouse as paramount and give the power to advance capital as well as income.
• To terminate the trust if the Life Tenant remarries or starts living with someone else.
• To name the beneficiaries, so that only those named will benefit from your share of your home e.g. all your children (including from previous marriages/relationships).
• it is likely that you can mitigate fees towards your future care costs

Right to Occupy

How can this trust help me?

It is not uncommon to have a member of your family living at your home. This can include an elderly relative or your eldest child, either way, if you die they may need your protection to allow them to remain in the property.
Setting up this trust can give them the right to keep residing there. This can be for a specified number of years, for life or until the individual no longer requires to remain e.g. ceases to use the property as their main residence. This protection can only be given by this Trust.

A right to occupy (reside) can also help your children’s guardians, by giving them the right to live in your home while bringing up your children BUT knowing that when say, your youngest child attains the age of 18, 21 or 25 the trust will end. When this occurs the guardians revert back to their own property allowing the family home to be passed onto your children.
Once this Trust has come to an end the named beneficiaries will then receive the house just as if it was gifted straight to them. This is usually children, family members etc. however if no-one is mentioned within the Trust the house will then return to the residuary estate leaving it as per your intentions within your Will.

Many people will draft a Will to ensure that all their assets are passed onto their children and chosen beneficiaries after their death. However a Will can only distribute the assets you own at the time of your death, so if your assets have been depleted over the years, there will be little left for your beneficiaries.

Family Asset Trusts, are designed to protect assets during your lifetime and will give you peace of mind that they will be passed to your beneficiaries after your death. Think of a Family Asset Trust as a ‘safe’, it ring-fences your family home, other property, bank accounts, stocks and shares, jewellery, fine art, business and agricultural assets, bonds and investments, cars and any other assets you decide to place in it. The primary advantage of an asset protection trust is that it can help ensure that more of the wealth you have amassed throughout your life is left to your beneficiaries and not wasted on unnecessary costs.

How can this Trust help You?

The Flexible Life Interest Trust (FLIT) has been described as the ‘ideal modern Will’. In today’s modern life of more complex estates and greater wealth, it is essential for the testators to have greater flexibility as to how their estate will devolve when they die. A well planned and drafted Will should be able to cope with changes in the future to the family structure and this includes the addition of new family members and changes to the tax regime introduced from time to time.

The main way to achieve maximum flexibility is through the use of Will trusts, whether they are discretionary; giving power to the trustees to make decisions of a named group or ‘class’ of beneficiary without having to ensure equality amongst them or interest in possession trusts giving the beneficiary a life interest in the trust assets rather than an outright gift.

How can this Trust help You?

Do you have a business? You may be entitled to reliefs and exemptions to minimise your Inheritance Tax! The IHT legislation is still very ‘business-friendly’ and proper attention and planning can ensure significant savings are achieved. The value of your business assets in conjunction with all other assets may mean that you will be IHT liable (this can be prevented with Business Property Relief!). The requirements in all cases is that the business assets MUST be owned for 2 years prior to the transfer (i.e. on your death).

You may qualify for 100% relief on the value of:

• An unincorporated trading business;
• An interest in a partnership;
• Unquoted shares in a trading company (including AIM shares);
• Securities in an unquoted company controlled by the owner.

You may qualify for a 50% relief on the value of:

• Shares or securities in a quoted company controlled by the owner; or
• Land, buildings, plant or machinery which is used by a company controlled by the owner or by partnership in which the owner is a partner.
• If your business assets qualify you must carefully consider who is going to inherit.
• You may wish to leave your business interest to your children or spouse but:
• You are concerned about their ability to deal with the asset? or
• Wish to undertake some IHT planning for their estates?

How can this Trust help You?

Do you have a family member who is mentally/physically handicapped? Your care for him/her is hugely important and this needs to be considered when you are no longer around. This Trust will enable you to leave your assets in a controlled settlement, with people who will have the ability to make all financial decisions for them. There are huge disadvantages in gifting assets to a disabled child/person and this Trust helps avoid many of them.

Leaving a simple Will in the hope that ‘everything will be alright’ can have a disastrous effect; this gives you a list of the disadvantages of not using this Trust:

• Benefits from the Benefits Agency being stopped.
• Entitlement to Local Authority funding being stopped.
• A Receiver from the Court of Protection having to be appointed to manage the affairs of the disabled person. This can be very expensive and may not act as you or the disabled person may want them to.
• The estate being subject to a much harsher tax treatment.

Explore the benefits of having a Disabled Person’s Trust in place below. Your dedicated Cedar Wills & Trusts advisor is available to help you navigate each stage of the process, providing the latest advice, future proofing your protection. Schedule your confidential consultation today.

Including this Trust within your Will can ensure that you make provisions for added luxuries and extras that you would want your disabled child (family member) to have e.g. holidays, particular equipment to help enhance their way of life.

This Trust enables you to secure the future of your disabled family member who is unable to look after their own affairs and to protect them.