Protect Your Property For The Future

Property Protection Trusts (PPT), sometimes known as Asset Preservation Trusts, are a way to take and maintain control over your home or other property, protecting it for your loved ones well into the future.

The benefits of placing a property in a Trust rather than simply leaving it in a Will is that you can create a set of guidelines as to what happens with your property, which will need to be adhered even after you’re gone.

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property protection trusts

Why Choose a Trust?

A Trust is like a treasure chest of your assets that you store away for safekeeping – like a pirate hoarding their booty. This allows you to control who has access, and safeguards your property from the wrong people. Many people don’t understand the rules of inheritance until it’s too late, meaning they lose large portions of their estate. Don’t let it happen to you!

Without a Trust, that home you’ve worked hard for could fall into the wrong hands, allowing the taxman or a greedy family member get their hands on your assets.

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Future estates could be taxed up to 40% if they go over the threshold.

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In 2019, the government gained £3.49 Billion in inheritance tax from people’s estates.

What Are The Main Threats to My Assets?

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Tax Charges

If you leave a property in your Will, it’ll become part of the assets of your beneficiaries. They’ll be chuffed – their estate will grow massively. But on the flip side, it can impact the inheritance tax of future generations, as when your beneficiary passes away, their estate, which has been boosted by yours, will likely be pushed over the inheritance tax threshold. If this happens, they could be hit with a tax bill of up to 40%. You don’t want the taxman robbing 40% of your hard-earned assets, do you?

If you put your house or other property in a Trust, however, they then exist outside of your or your beneficiary’s assets – they’re not technically “owned”. This means they’re unlikely to go over the threshold. Sorry, taxman, better luck next time!

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Inheritance Laws

Leaving your house to your loved ones in a Will isn’t enough to make sure you have control over your property in the long term. If your partner remarries after your death, your children could end up being disqualified from inheriting any property you’ve left behind. This is known as ‘sideways inheritance’, and can cause a host of problems.

With a Trust however, you can set out a clear set of instructions, ensuring your children inherit what’s their by right, whatever happens in the future. Any property within the Trust is protected from the usual lines of inheritance (set out by the government in the “rules of intestacy”) and this prevents anyone else from passing on your property to someone you wouldn’t want to get it.

How Can Property Protection Trusts Guard my Assets?

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Choose exactly who has access to your home and other property assets.

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Enjoy your privacy – Trusts aren’t public documents, unlike Wills.

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Save on inheritance tax – don’t let your loved ones lose out.

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Provide better financial support for your dependants’ futures.

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Give your loved ones quicker access to the property when you’re gone.

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Gain better flexibility over how your property is managed in the long-term.

The Trusts we offer are an optional addition to our Bespoke Will service. Click here to find out more about Bespoke Wills.

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Putting property in trust

A Property Protection Trust allows you to split the ownership of your property in any way you see fit. Think of it as a treasure chest which you can fill with any property you own. By placing it in the chest, you take control of who has access by only giving the key to those you trust.

There are three main roles in a Trust, but keep in mind that an individual can have more than one role. For example, they can be both a Trustee and a Beneficiary.

The Settlor

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Deposits their property in the chest for safekeeping, and appoints the people who will guard it.

The Trustee

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Guards the chest, and follows the guidelines outlined in the Trust by the settlor.

The Beneficiary

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Has access to the chest, and benefits from the assets when the guidelines allow.

Will Trust

Protect Your Property For Your Loved Ones

With a Will Trust, you can place your percentage of any property ownership into the Trust. Then if you die before your partner, or the other part-owner, they’ll be able to carry on living in the home. It also means that the property won’t be considered in any assessments made of your partner’s situation, because they’d still only legally own their part of the house. By doing things like this, you can really help avoid large tax bills.

By leaving your property share in a Trust in your Will, you can make sure that your loved ones are supported when they need it most, by allowing them to access their inheritance without any problems or delay.

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If you leave your property in a Trust in your Will, it’ll create a right to occupy (known as a life tenant) for someone who survives you – the beneficiary of the Trust. It can also help avoid large taxes being paid on the property.

The Trusts we offer are an optional addition to our Bespoke Will service. Click here to find out more about Bespoke Wills.

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If you leave your property in a Trust in your Will, it will create a right to occupy for someone who survives you, who you named as a beneficiary of the Trust in your Will. This can help avoid large taxes to be paid on the property.

Discretionary Trust

Not Sure How You Want to Distribute Your Assets?

A Discretionary Property Protection Trust allows you to place your share of a property in a Trust for your loved ones to benefit from, even if you haven’t yet decided how you want to distribute them. These flexible solutions are useful if you’ve got a growing family or children who aren’t old enough to manage funds themselves just yet.

The terms of a Discretionary Trust allow your trustees to choose when it’s time to give your property to the named beneficiaries. You’ll need to appoint someone you trust to manage the property in the Trust, so you can be sure everything you leave in there will be distributed fairly, whatever the circumstances.

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Although ultimate control over the Trust is given to the trustee, you can create a ‘Letter Of Wishes’ to go with the document. This gives guidance to your trustees on how you’d like the property assets to be handled, but do keep in mind that they don’t have to follow it – it’s not legally binding!

The Trusts we offer are an optional addition to our Bespoke Will service. Click here to find out more about Bespoke Wills.

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discretionary trust

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Although ultimate control over the Trust is given to the trustee, you can create a ‘Letter Of Wishes’ to go with the document. This gives guidance to your trustees on how you’d like the property assets to be handled, but do keep in mind that they don’t have to follow it – it’s not legally binding!

Who Can I Appoint as a Trustee?

You’ve got to make sure that no matter what type of Trust you’re creating, you choose responsible and reliable trustees. All trustees (and there can be more than one per Trust) must meet the following criteria:

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They must be at least 18 years of age.

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They can be a family member, friend or professional acting on your behalf.

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If you’re creating a Trust which will be effective whilst you’re alive, you can be the trustee.

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You must be confident that they have the best interests of the beneficiaries at heart.

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We advise you to choose at least 2 trustees, but no more than 4. Make sure there’ll be no tension between the trustees.

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If you’d rather have someone outside of your family be a trustee, you can appoint a professional such as a solicitor, Trust company or accountant.

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They’ll need to fully understand the responsibility of managing the Trust on your behalf.

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It’s a good idea to name substitute trustees, to replace a trustee should anything happen to them.

In What Situations Might I Want a Property Protection Trust?

A Trust can include any wishes about how your assets should be handled by the trustee, and you are able to express more complex wishes in how you’d like your estate to be managed.

Case One

Annie is a widower who owns her own home and wants to keep it in the family when she dies. As she doesn’t have a legal spouse anymore, she knows that when she dies, it’ll go directly to her only daughter, Kerry. This is ideal, as Annie wants Kerry and her 2 children to have an investment for the future, and for the house to stay in the family in the long-term.

When Annie passes, the house goes directly to her daughter as planned. However, a few years later Kerry becomes ill and dies unexpectedly, and her husband Stephen inherits all of her assets including the house Annie had left behind through the rules of intestacy. This then forms part of Stephen’s estate, creating the possibility that the house will leave the family if he chose to get married again in the future. Annie’s grandchildren could potentially end up with no inheritance at all from their grandmother, which is not what Annie wanted.

How Would a Trust Help Annie?

If Annie places her home into a Trust, it’ll be saved from forming part of hers and Kerry’s assets, meaning it won’t automatically pass to Stephen under the UK’s rules of intestacy. Whether Stephen marries again or not, the property in the Trust will only ever be accessible to Annie’s grandchildren, just as she wanted.

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Case Two

Sammie and Darren have 3 children and own a home together, each owning 50% of the property. Darren dies and his share of the property automatically falls to Sammie, so she now owns the home fully. As she gets older however, she develops a chronic illness and needs a lot of health care. Eventually, she needs to move into a care home in order to make sure she gets all of the specialist care she needs round the clock.

When she moves into the home, the government look at her assets in order to calculate if and how much she needs to pay towards the home fees. As she owns 100% of the property, her asset total goes over the threshold and she needs to sell the house in order to cover the fees herself. This means that the house that Sammie and Darren worked hard for and ideally wanted to pass on to their children is sold and isn’t kept within the family as they’d have liked.

How Would a Trust Help Derek?

Whilst it’s not exactly allowed to consider putting a house in a trust to avoid care home fees purposely, it is a handy by-product. If Sammie and Darren would have put their home into a Trust, when each of them passed, their share would have automatically been deposited into the Trust. Sammie would have been able to continue living in the property after Darren died, and when she also died, the Trust would then have been available to their children. Home fully protected.

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The Trusts we offer are an optional addition to our Bespoke Will service. Click here to find out more about Bespoke Wills.

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Questions

  • Yes, it’s possible to have more than one role. For example, a trustee can also be a beneficiary. It most cases, it’s better to have more than one Trustee – speak to us about the best way to organise your Trust.

  • This document supports the Trust Deed and outlines your wishes for the assets placed within the Trust. Although not legally binding, it gives guidance to the trustees on how you’d like your Trust to be executed on your behalf. You can update this as often as you want without having to amend the Trust Deed itself.

  • When the beneficiary of a Trust dies, the Trust is then “wound-up”. When creating your Trust Deed, you should name back-up beneficiaries to inherit any assets which remain in the fund if the original beneficiary dies. This can be family, friends or even charities.

  • It depends on the type of Trust. If the Trust Deed states that they can’t access funds before a certain age, or must meet a set of requirements, then it’s unlikely that assets will be released early without very good reason.

    If the Deed states that the beneficiary can have discretionary access to the Trust at any time, then the beneficiary will need to formally petition the trustee. The trustee then decides whether to release the funds.

  • It depends on the type of Trust. Some types of Trusts are tax exempt, or are only subject to charges if they’re over a certain value. There are three main tax implications to consider when creating your Trust, including:

    • Income Tax
    • Capital Gains Tax
    • Inheritance Tax

    To find out more about how taxes can affect you, and how to protect your funds as much as possible, just get in touch.

  • No, you can also put companies, stocks and other valuable assets into a Trust. It’s not limited to money and property.

  • Only you, the trustee, and any beneficiaries are able to see the Trust documentation. Unlike Wills and some other legal documents, Trusts aren’t made public, even after death. It’s another benefit of using Trusts alongside or instead of a Will, as the contents remain private at all times.

  • With so many types of Trusts available, it’s difficult to know where to start. That’s why we’re here to listen to your personal circumstances and wishes – then, we can guide you towards the best Trust for you. With so many complexities, you need to seek the advice of a specialist to avoid any unwanted issues.