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Will trusts

Trusts are often thought of as being:

  • only for the very wealthy
  • a way of "tying up" money or property so nobody can get their hands on it
  • very complicated

Certainly many extremely wealthy people have trusts - but so do many people who are "moderately wealthy" or "comfortably off".

Why do people set up trusts? The simplest answer is because making outright gifts to other people is not always the best thing to do.

You might set up a trust because:

  • a trust can often help to save a significant amount of tax, especially inheritance tax
  • it isn't always appropriate or even possible for very young family members to hold assets in their own names
  • you may be concerned that your children or other beneficiaries could get into debt, or their marriages could fail - in which case outright gifts to them could result in their inheritance falling into the "wrong" hands.