Trusts

Trusts are an important part of effective estate planning and can play a key role in protecting your assets and your beneficiaries.

When used appropriately within a will, trusts can help ensure that your estate is passed on in a controlled and considered way. They may also provide protection against potential risks such as care fee assessments, remarriage — often referred to as sideways disinheritance — and relationship breakdowns.

There are several types of trust available, and choosing the right one depends entirely on your personal circumstances, family structure and long-term wishes. We will guide you through the options and recommend solutions that are appropriate, practical and aligned with your objectives. Sometimes the right recommendation is that you do not need a trust at all, and we will say so.

Many couples choose to leave their estate to one another, intending that their children will inherit in the future. A property protection trust can help safeguard a share of the property — typically half — ensuring it is ultimately preserved for chosen beneficiaries. The surviving partner retains the right to live in and benefit from the property for their lifetime, while the protected share remains ringfenced for the next generation.

On care fees specifically, honesty matters. A trust created on a first death can protect that person’s half share, because that share never belonged to the survivor. What it cannot do is protect assets you transfer while you are fit and well, in the hope of a future assessment — a local authority can treat that as deliberate deprivation of assets, and there is no time limit on how far back it can look.

Discretionary trusts provide flexibility. By supporting the trust with a letter of wishes, you enable your trustees to make decisions about how and when beneficiaries receive assets. This approach can be particularly helpful where circumstances may change over time, where a beneficiary receives means-tested benefits, or where greater control and adaptability are required.

Trusts also carry ongoing obligations. Trustees have duties, and some trusts must be registered on HMRC’s Trust Registration Service. We explain all of that before you commit, not after.