Trusts are a vehicle for protecting money and assets for a prolonged period of time and in some cases can afford flexibility as to how assets are used to benefit the intended recipient; known as the Beneficiary.
Myth buster – Trusts are not the preserve of the super rich! They are used by all sorts of people for all sorts of reasons.
For many families who have children or other loved ones who are disabled or vulnerable, it can be a worry as to how you can continue to support those individuals financially without affecting their entitlement to receive means tested benefits. There are various ways of achieving this, one of which is to prepare a Will which includes a Disabled Persons Trust.
There are many benefits to this type of trust including:
- The assets are not considered as belonging to the Beneficiary. As such their entitlement to receive means tested benefits is not affected.
- The Trustees have the flexibility to enable both capital and income distributions to the Beneficiary in order to ensure an enhanced quality of life.
- The Trustees have the opportunity to make small capital distributions to other individuals during the lifetime of the disabled or vulnerable person, such as their carer. The Trustees can advance monies to enable them to maintain their own mental and physical strength so as to prolong the support available to the disabled/vulnerable person. This might include paying for the carer to enjoy a holiday with or without the Beneficiary.
- You can direct what happens to any remaining balance of the Trust Fund following the death of the Beneficiary.
The Trustees will need to have a keen sense of your priorities and these can be detailed at the time of preparing your Will in a document which we refer to as a Letter of Wishes. This is your guide to the Trustees to assist them in discharging their duties as Trustees appropriately.
Your chosen Trustees must be entirely trustworthy. Where there are no family members who wish to take on what can be considered a burdensome role, professional Trustees should be considered and this may be prudent in any event.
At Wollens, we have a dedicated Vulnerable Client team as well as a dedicated Trust team. This combined wealth of experience positions us well to accept the role of professional Trustee. This, coupled with the fact that we also have a dedicated Wills team, means that we know exactly the right questions to ask in order to extract the information which will be essential to enable us to carry out your wishes.
If you have family members or loved ones who you would like to benefit under the terms of your Will via a Disabled Persons Trust, make contact with us today.
Email us at [email protected]
