It is unlikely.  A Will Trust may only be worthwhile if you think that your total assets will be under the Nil Rate Band (currently £325,000 – 2010/2011) on the death of the second person if you are married or in a civil partnership.
If you are wealthy retired, a small business owner, or part of the millionaire asset group with an asset base currently in excess of £1 million, we believe that you should seek professional experienced inheritance tax advice before proceeding with this option to see if it’s really right for you.  A simple Will can be limiting, for both you, your surviving spouse and your children, and will not make use of some large potential tax savings.

No one likes either talking or thinking about death. However, it is an inevitability that we all face and we would all like to make our passing easier for our surviving loved ones. To this end, everyone over the age of 18 years should make a Will and check periodically that it remains up to date and reflects their current situation.

Yes.  You probably need to relook at your Will as laws around Will Trusts have altered.  If you made your Will prior to April 2007, then you definitely need to reassess it, ideally with the help of an experienced Adviser.
Please also take a look at your expected assets for the future.  If you think that when you (or both of you if you are married) die that your assets will be valued in excess of the current Nil Rate Band, or indeed, in excess of £1 million, then you really should consider alternative Lifetime Family Trusts.
Good inheritance tax advice and tax advice as part of an overall financial plan are well worth looking into. An experienced inheritance tax Adviser is essential for this.

You can if you choose to.  The question is, ‘is this sensible practice?’ – even if you are not part of the wealthy retired. If your Estate is likely to be valued (at a minimum), in excess of £50,000, then the relatively small amount it would cost to correctly write your Will is worthwhile to avoid any possible challenges by other people in the future.

Any person over 18 can be the Executor of the Will. When a person dies, the Executor is obliged to deal with their Estate ensuring that their Will, assuming they had one, is adhered to.
It is the Executor’s responsibility to make sure the deceased’s Estate is correctly valued for inheritance tax purposes and that any outstanding tax bill is paid. If there’s no will, or those named are unwilling or unable to fulfil the role,  a court may appoint an administrator in their place.
In England and Wales, an Executor can be held personally financially liable for any loss that a breach of their duty incurs, regardless of whether the error was inadvertent or intentional.
Executors are obliged to disclose all known information about the Estate of the deceased, typically income from bank accounts, liabilities from credit cards, utility bills and other outstanding debts.

Probate is the term used when talking about applying for the right to deal with a deceased person’s affairs.  A grant of Probate is almost always needed when the person who dies leaves one or more of the following:

• £5,000 of assets

• Stocks or shares

• Certain insurance policies

• Property or land

Probate won’t be granted until some or all of any inheritance tax that is due on the Estate has been paid. Instead of appointing a Solicitor as an Executor or Trustee, a charging clause would allow your Executors to employ a professional Solicitor or company to undertake those parts of the Probate process that they do not want to deal with, or have insufficient knowledge to deal with.  A charging clause will allow the Executors to take the charges of the Solicitor or company from the Estate rather than paying the fees themselves.

A Trust is a legal arrangement where the person or persons who own an asset can transfer the ownership to Beneficiaries of the Trust (usually their children or grandchildren). The distribution of capital or income is controlled by the Trustees. The Trustees are usually the parents and sometimes also the adult children. These adult children can be both Trustees and Beneficiaries.

There are normally three parties involved in setting up a Trust:

1. TheSettlor.  The Settlor sets up the initial asset e.g. an insurance or pension contract and then transfer the control of the assets to the Trustee.
2. The Trustee.  The Trustee is the legal owner of the assets and holds and manages them for the benefit of the Beneficiaries.
3. The Beneficiaries.  The Beneficiaries are the individuals or groups of people selected by the Settlor to receive the benefits of the Trust.

The rules regarding inheritance tax were changed in October 2006 and so if you have not had your existing Wills reviewed since that time is advised to do so. All new clients who proceed with our Advanced Wealth Protection Plan will have new wills included as part of the plan.
Most people fail to project forward the value of their assets over the time of their perceived lifetimes and so believe they will not have a large IHT liability. This is a serious error – Take the time to get the projections or engage us to do them for you.

If you are a settlor you cannot benefit from your own Trust. If you did benefit, the assets in the Trust will have the Gifts with Reservation of Benefit rules applied by HMRC and so the Trust would fail to avoid inheritance tax. Once you die your widow or widower can benefit from certain Trusts.

As potential Beneficiaries of a Discretionary Trust do not have a right to the Trust assets if a Beneficiary dies, none of the value of the Trust property will be included in his or her Estate for IHT purposes.  This would not be the case had an Interest in Possession Trust been used.

The Trustees will have total control over the Trust funds and the discretion to pay out monies to whomever they feel it appropriate, from the various classes of Beneficiaries.
This means that should any Beneficiary in the future be in receipt of state or local authority benefits, the entitlement to money from the Trust fund will not stop these benefits being paid to the Beneficiary. Of course, there is a further benefit which means that should your spouse/partner become involved in any further relationship following your death, the assets within the Discretionary Trust will be protected from this third party acquiring them.

Once you have written a policy under Trust, you have no power to end the Trust other than in your capacity as a Trustee.  The only action you can take is to stop paying the premiums for affected policies.
The Trustees may be able to advance all the Trust property to Beneficiaries so nothing is left in the Trust, thus bringing it to an end.

Yes, Trusts, as you can see from all of the above, can be complex and require experienced advice and help to obtain the many benefits they provide.