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If you need help setting up a trust to protect your finances for your family or wish to obtain further legal advice around trust creation and administration, our team can help.

What is a Trust?

A trust is simply a way of protecting an asset by separating the legal owner from the beneficiary. A trust can be created with anything of value such as a property, pension lump sum, a savings account or specific belongings such as jewellery or premium bonds.

Trusts are used to manage and maintain your assets and may be helpful when considering  inheritance tax planning. Setting up a trust can also help mitigate tax, protect a family business, make charitable donations or control the distribution of assets over time.

You can set up a trust during your lifetime (a lifetime trust) or create one within your will. Our trust solicitors offer advice on the different types of trusts, the benefits and the pitfalls of creating a trust and can also advise about other options which can be simpler and more cost effective which many of our clients do in fact prefer. Our trust solicitors can provide comprehensive advice so that you and your loved ones can make an informed decision about your assets. We can also advise, administering  trusts, removing or appointing trustees and advising trustees on their powers and responsibilities.

Asset protection

Many of our clients want to ensure that the assets that they have worked so hard to build up over their lifetime, are preserved to be passed down to their loved ones.

Our asset protection solicitors can advise you on the legitimate steps that you can take to preserve as much as possible for your loved ones. We can advise you on all the possible options to preserve your assets in the event that you may need long-term care by carefully drafted wills, and guiding you through the complex pitfalls of the rules on ‘deliberate deprivation of assets’.

Our asset protection solicitors can give practical advice on:

  • protecting assets in the event of remarriages or relationship breakdown
  • protection of pension and life policy lump sum death benefits

Our caring and friendly approach builds two-way trust, while our knack for putting technical legal language into plain English ensures our clients fully understand the issues and consequences of different courses of action. If you are looking for further help with life planning, our team can help:

Contact us today on 0191 232 9547 to speak to a specialist solicitor.  We can often provide you with a fixed fee cost which will allow you to move forward with the reassurance of having certainty as to legal costs.

Frequently asked questions

Who can I protect assets for?

You are able to choose who your assets would be protected for. Normally the person who sets up the trust will be able to benefit from it together with their children or remoter descendants

When is the best time to set up a trust?

A trust should be set up whilst you are fit and well so it is important not to delay as none of us know what is around the corner.

What assets should I put into a trust?

Many of our client’s main assets are their family home and they are worried about preserving this for their children. It is therefore common for people to place their main property into trust but other assets can be put into trust as well. It is important to ensure you do not put all your assets into trust so you still have money to live on.

What if I change my mind?

Setting up a trust is not permanent and if you change your mind it is possible for the trustees to wind up the trust. Before winding up a trust, you would need to seek advice about the implications of this particularly any tax implications.

What are the downsides of a trust?

Creating a Trust places a lot of responsibility on the Trustees and could be seen as a burden. They are required to register the Trust with HMRC, submit yearly tax returns and ensure any tax is paid correctly. Clients can often be concerned about this as creating a Trust is not as straightforward as some may think. It is very important to ensure the Trustees are not falling foul of any requirements as they would be seen as being negligent in their role.

The David Gray Setting Up A Trust Team

Nicola Fisher

Associate Solicitor

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