Probate, Trusts and Estate Administration
Trusts can be useful for various different reasons including; asset protection, safeguarding the interests of vulnerable individuals, and tax-efficient wealth distribution across generations, potentially mitigating inheritance tax (IHT) liabilities.
Trusts can be made during your lifetime, with you potentially acting as trustee and retaining control over gifted assets. Alternatively, they can be established in your Will to protect assets or beneficiaries after your death. Different types of trusts exist, tailored to the nature and value of the assets, their intended use and any family planning issues that are relevant.
Our team of expert trust solicitors offers trust administration advice to both professional and lay Trustees. Trustees have responsibility for ensuring the proper investment and legal management of the trust. A failure to properly manage and administer a trust could result in personal liability for trustees. Consequently, many of our clients seek our assistance to understand their duties and ensure the necessary legal and investment advice is obtained. Our solicitors assist with the level of guidance and support you need and some of our trust services are set out below:
Where appropriate our solicitors will work closely with the financial planning team at John Hodge Financial Planners to provide a single point of contact for specialist trust advice.
The Trust Registration Service (TRS) serves as a closed database of the beneficial ownership information of trusts. It's an online platform that trustees and personal representatives of complex estates and trusts must use to fulfil their registration requirements under the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing, and Transfer of Funds Regulations.
Initially, trusts were only required to register if the trustees incurred specific tax liabilities.
New rules were introduced in October 2020, which extended the scope of the TRS to all UK Express Trusts, regardless of whether the trust has to pay any tax. Therefore, the majority of trusts now need to be registered, though there are still some trusts that are excluded from registration. Some complex estates (and trusts arising following the death of an individual) also need to be registered with TRS, for administrative purposes rather than under the Money Laundering Regulations.
The deadline for registering non-taxable trusts that became registrable on or after 6 October 2020 is now 90 days from creation of the trust. If there are any changes to the trust, these also have to be reported within 90 days.
Simply, trusts can be a useful way of protecting your assets or the people you want to receive those assets or in certain circumstances reducing your tax liability.
Sometimes, by placing assets into a trust, the Trustees become the legal owner of the asset, not you. This could result in there being no need to apply for probate to be granted for those specific assets.
This is the day-to-day management of a trust. Trustees are under an obligation to make sure that the trust is managed properly and if the trustees do not do this, then they may be personally liable.
Updated anti-money laundering regulations have significantly widened the scope of the Trust Registration Service (TRS) and the number of trusts that are required to be registered. If you do not register your trust with the TRS then you could face a fine from HMRC.
There is a small list of trusts that are exempt from the registration requirement. This includes but is not limited to, charitable trusts and life insurance policies that are held in trust. If you are in any doubt as to if your trust needs to be registered then discuss this with our team of trust administration experts.
This is a type of trust where a group of different people could potentially benefit from the trust in the future, the Trustees will decide who will receive what benefit.
This type of trust gives the use of an asset to a specific beneficiary for their lifetime or until a specific event occurs.
This is a way that trusts can be used to ring-fence any compensation that you receive to ensure that it does not affect your eligibility on means-tested benefits. For more information on this, please see our dedicated personal injury trust page.
If you need advice with trust creation, administration or TRS compliance, then please don’t hesitate to reach out to our team of trust experts based at our Weston-super-Mare, Clevedon, Yatton, Bridgwater, Bristol and Wedmore offices.
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