Family Asset Protection Trust
Where protection is the point, and tax is not. Everything you put in goes into a single fund, held on discretionary terms. Nothing is set aside for any one person, which is the point of it: your trustees keep the widest possible room to look after whoever needs looking after, and for as long as they need it.
What a Family Asset Protection Trust does
That single discretionary fund is what makes it protective. A beneficiary going through a divorce or a bankruptcy, one who is vulnerable or receiving means-tested benefits, one who cannot manage money, or one still too young to inherit, is looked after by your trustees rather than handed a sum outright. An outright share can cost a beneficiary the benefits they rely on; a discretionary fund does not. Your letter of wishes is how you guide them.
Your trustees hold the legal title, so the property can be dealt with straight away rather than waiting on a grant of probate.
There is no Capital Gains Tax on a family home, either on the transfer into the trust or during the time it is held there, for as long as it goes on qualifying for main residence relief.
Where a couple set one up together, each of you has your own fund with its own beneficiaries behind it, rather than the two being pooled. That matters where there are children from an earlier marriage.
Who it is for
Estates where Inheritance Tax is not expected to be a problem. Kept within the nil rate band, the trust carries no tax charges of its own.
Above that, a single discretionary fund does attract a charge when the trust is made, another every ten years, and another when assets leave it. So we recommend it only where tax is not in prospect, and your free review settles that before anything is decided.
It can be upgraded to an Estate Allocation Trust later if your circumstances change.
What it does not do
We would rather tell you this at the outset than have you find it out later. What is inside it sits outside your legal estate, which is what spares your family the wait, but it stays inside your estate for Inheritance Tax. It saves no tax, and it is not protection against care fees.
Prices
A Family Asset Protection Trust is £3,495 at Standard and £4,695 at Premium for one person, and £4,495 at Standard and £5,995 at Premium for a couple. Every price is a total and includes the £1,000 legal drafting disbursement. See the full price list.
Your free review tells you whether a trust would help at all, and which one. It costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
Who you are dealing with
- Institute of Professional Willwriters member, under the only willwriting code approved by the Chartered Trading Standards Institute
- SRA-regulated solicitors draft all reserved documents
- Supervised by HMRC for the Money Laundering Regulations
- £2m professional indemnity and £2m public liability cover
- DBS checked staff, or equivalent
For complex tax or trust positions we refer to a STEP-qualified solicitor who is also a member of the Association of Lifetime Lawyers, and to chartered qualified accountants and chartered tax advisers.
