Trusts

A trust is a legal arrangement where one or more people, the trustees, look after assets on behalf of others, the beneficiaries. Those assets might be money, property, land, shares or even treasured possessions. The trustees hold and manage them according to your wishes, which are usually set out either in your will or in a separate document called a trust deed.

People set up trusts for all sorts of reasons. You might want to make sure your home eventually passes to your children, even if circumstances change in the future. You might be providing for a child or grandchild who is too young, or too vulnerable, to manage a large sum on their own. Trusts can also be a valuable part of inheritance tax planning, and they allow you to pass assets on while keeping a degree of control during your lifetime. There are many different kinds of trust, and the right one depends entirely on your situation, which is why we always start by understanding what you're trying to achieve.

If you're setting one up, choosing the right trustees matters, because they take on real responsibility. A trustee has to manage the trust assets in line with the trust deed, look after them day to day, deal with any tax that's due, and make careful decisions about how the assets are invested or used. And if you've been asked to act as a trustee yourself and you're unsure what's expected of you, we can help with that too.

Trusts can be complex, and the rules around them change, so good advice makes all the difference. Our private client team has helped generations of local families set up and manage trusts as part of their wider estate planning, and we'll always explain your options in plain, practical terms. You can read more on our Wills & Estate Planning, Inheritance Tax & Estate Planning and Advice for Trustees, Attorneys & Executors pages, and our charges are set out on the fees page. If you'd like to talk through whether a trust is right for you, get in touch and we'll take the time to understand what matters to you.