Setting Up a Trust

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A properly prepared Will protects your loved ones and family and minimises the financial worry during what can be an upsetting and stressful time. At OneLaw Chambers, our Wills, Trusts and Probate Solicitors and Barristers are here to help you plan for your family’s future.
Our Wills, Trusts and Probate Solicitors and Barristers can provide you with immediate advice upon a full range of wills, trusts and probate matters.

How do trusts work?

A trust is a legal arrangement where you give cash, property or investments to someone else so they can look after them for the benefit of a third person. For example, you might put some of your savings aside in a trust for your children.

There are two important roles in any trust that are important to understand:

Trustees (also known as personal representatives): Trustees own the contents of the trust. The key duty is to collect and get in the real and personal estate of the deceased and administer it according to law. Once assets have been collected following the issue of the grant the trustees must administer the estate by paying debts and legacies and then distribute the residue to those entitled.
Beneficiaries: These are the people who will benefit from the trust.

Setting up a trust can help reduce the amount of inheritance tax (IHT) your estate pays when you die In the UK. IHT is applied to any portion of an estate that exceeds the threshold of £325,000, at a rate of 40% (unless the estate is being passed to a spouse, civil partner, or charity). For example, if the total value of your assets when you die is worth £500,000, then £175,000 will be taxed at 40%, for a total IHT bill of £70,000.

Our Solicitors and Barristers can help set up and administer trusts to ensure your assets are protected and your family are looked after.

What do trustees do?

The power of a trustee comes from two places; statute and/or the deceased’s will. Statute confers a number of basic powers upon all PRs to enable them to carry out the administration. These powers are set out in The Administration of Estates Act 1925, The Trustee Act 1925, and Trusts of Land Appointment of Trustees Act 1996.

If the deceased left a will, the will may express additional powers, or exclusions or modifications to the statutory powers. The powers in the will take priority over statutory powers so the statutory powers apply in default of any alternative contained in the will. Trustees are in a ‘fiduciary position’ in relation to their powers; they must exercise their powers and act in utmost good faith and must not profit from their position

How to set up a trust

The law dictates that for a trust to be valid, it must establish three certainties: the intention of the settlor to create it, the subject matter (assets) that will make up the trust property, and the objects (beneficiaries) who will receive the income and assets from the trust.

Setting up a trust and appointing trustees should not be taken lightly. The responsibilities of these roles have legal implications and breaching trustee duties could get you in big trouble. If you are considering setting up a trust it is strongly recommended that you consult a legal professional, ideally a solicitor who is familiar with trust, financial and tax matters. Your lawyer will be able to help you set up the trust and give useful advice.

Why Instruct OneLaw Chambers for your Wills, Trusts and Probate Case?

At OneLaw Chambers, our Wills, Trusts and Probate Solicitors and Barristers regularly assist with many contentious and non-contentious wills, trusts and probate cases. We have assisted and represented many clients from all over the world achieving successful outcomes for them.

Our expert Wills, Trusts and Probate team of Solicitors and Barristers is one of the strongest multi-disciplinary and diverse teams in the country, covering the breadth of wills, probate, tax and trust work. We have considerable experience with high value estates and international wealth and understand the unique challenges this can present.

Our Wills, Trusts and Probate Solicitors and Barristers can help you protect your assets against future life changes such as divorce, manage your wealth and succession planning across multiple countries, and make sure your estate is structured as tax-efficiently as possible.

With our strong partnerships and affiliations with chartered tax advisors and financial planners, we have the capacity to deal with everything in-house and provide you with a complete solution.

We are committed to ensuring that our Wills, Trusts and Probate Solicitors and Barristers prepare every wills, trusts and probate case with utmost quality and skill so that successful outcome is achieved every time. Our Wills, Trusts and Probate Solicitors and Barristers operate in a friendly and cooperative manner to provide our clients with the best client care and service during the entire wills, trusts and probate case process.