Using a Trust for beneficiaries in different circumstances.

No one can accurately predict the circumstances their children will be experiencing when it comes time for them to inherit. Ideally everyone’s beneficiaries would be in a perfect position when the time came, although this is not often the case.

This is where a Discretionary Trust is the ideal solution. In this case our client had left a property, held in trust, for their four children. As Trustees our responsibility was to sell the family home, keeping the funds in the Trust and distributing them as per our client’s wishes.

Two of the beneficiaries were in a position to inherit immediately and were given their shares. Of the remaining two beneficiaries one was going through a divorce, and we were able to delay their bequest until after this was finalised, protecting this portion of our client’s estate.

The fourth beneficiary was in receipt of means tested benefits and a one-off lump sum would unfortunately see these removed. As Trustees we are able to make smaller payments to the beneficiary over a period of years, ensuring that they keep their benefits and also get the best from their inheritance. This kind of variation would not have been possible with an outright gift via a Will alone, and our client’s Estate would not have been distributed as per their wishes.