Trusts

What is a Trust?

A Trust is a legal binding relationship between the settler (person creating the trust) who transfers property to a group of people (the trustees) who hold the assets on trust for a defined group (the beneficiaries).

There are many reasons why you would need a trust such as:

• Providing for family members incapable of managing own affairs
• Providing for surviving spouse during their lifetime whilst preserving capital for children of the marriage in the long term
• Reducing exposure to inheritance tax
• Trusts of life insurance policies or pension plans
• Potentially mitigating care home fees
• Personal injury trust

The role of trustee is a responsible role, it entails ensuring the trust is run correctly, making decisions over investments.

How can Judge & Priestley help?

You can create a trust during your lifetime by passing assets into a trust which has been created by a trust deed, or you can create a trust in your Will, which only comes into effect when you die. Judge & Priestley can do this for you, our charges are based on the amount of time spent dealing with the matter. However before any trusts are created it is important that we have discussed your personal needs before we can advise on the best structure. There are often various tax implications and we would always recommended discussing matters with an accountant before proceeding.

We can assist in advising, selling up and/or administering:

• Life time discretionary trust
• Life interest trust
• Personal injury trust
• Pension benefit trust
• Bare trust
• Contingent/minor beneficiary trust

To find out more about creating and/or managing a trust, you can make an appointment by phoning our Bromley office on 020 8290 7354.