Trust Solicitors

Trust solicitors are used to ensure that your wealth and assets are protected both now and well into the future. Our specialist will and trust solicitors will be able to help you with any legal matters surrounding a trust that you may want to set up.

What is a Trust?

Trusts are designed to help you to manage your financial assets – things such as money, investments, land or buildings. There are different types of trusts and they are taxed differently. Putting your assets in a trust can allow you to:

• Provide for vulnerable loved ones and be able to pay for care home fees
• Manage personal injury compensation
• Reduce inheritance tax payments
• Protect assets during a divorce
• Fund education for your children or grandchildren
• Provide for children and partners from different relationships
• Safely pass on assets to the next generation

There are also some specific situations in which you may want to put your assets in a trust. These may be:

• To control and protect family assets
• When someone’s too young to handle their own affairs
• When someone cannot handle their affairs because they’re incapacitated
• To pass on assets while you’re still alive

Who is Involved in a Trust?

When you have set up a trust, several individuals are involved. These are:

• The ‘settlor’ – the person who puts assets into a trust.
  Their job is to decide how the assets in a trust should be used – this is usually set out in a document called the ‘trust deed.’ In some cases, the settlor can also benefit from the assets in a trust – this is called a ‘settlor-interested’ trust and has special tax rules.

• The ‘trustee’ – the person who manages the trust.
  Trustees are the legal owners of the assets held in a trust. Their role is to deal with the assets according to the settlor’s wishes, as set out in the trust deed or their will. They also manage the trust on a day-to-day basis and pay any tax due, while also deciding how to invest or use the trust’s assets. If the trustees change, the trust can continue but one trustee must always exist.

• The ‘beneficiary’ – the appointed person or people who benefit from the trust
  A whole family or a defined group of people can be beneficiaries, and they may benefit from several different things in the trust. This could be the income of trust only e.g. renting out land or property held in a trust, the capital only e.g. getting shares held in a trust when they reach a certain age, or both the income and the capital of the trust.

Our will and trust solicitors are authorised and regulated by the solicitor’s regulation authority and will be able to provide legal advice and answer any queries that you have regarding trusts and estates.

Get in touch with our will and trust solicitors today for expert help and advice.