When considering your Estate Planning needs, it may be beneficial for the effective drafting of your Will to consider including a Discretionary Trust in Mersea or anywhere else in Essex. On this basis, Laura Richardson now introduces the concept and value of generally including a Trust in your Will and, more specifically, a Discretionary Trust in Mersea and throughout Essex . . .
A large proportion of people in Mersea leave the majority of their belongings to their children in their Will. However, if any of the beneficiaries in your Will are under the age of 18, then any inherited items or money must be held for them on Trust. Simply speaking, this means that you choose a person to look after the items, or money on behalf of the children who have inherited. This person is appointed as the Trustee and is obliged to act in the best interests of the beneficiaries until they reach a point at which they can inherit the items in their own right. Within the Trust you can choose at what point this is. Sometimes a Trust will be set up that states a certain age limit, perhaps 18, 21 or 25 years old. In other Trusts it may be upon reaching a certain milestone, such as graduating University, getting married, or buying their first home. It is entirely your choice at which point the Trustee hands over the inheritance, and this is recorded within the Trust document.
A common form of Trust to be set up for children is a Discretionary Trust in Mersea. Often, if children are inheriting an amount of money, some of this money will be needed to cover the cost of raising the children. Therefore it is often advisable to allow your chosen Trustee to have the power to use their discretion when deciding whether part of the inheritance should be accessed and used for the general day to day care of the children. However, it may be that you have also appointed a Guardian for your own children, within your Will, along with a bequeathed sum of money to cover these costs. In this case the Trustee would be able to use their discretion to allow access to the inheritance in order to supplement these costs, but there are many other reasons as to why the inheritance may need to be accessed early. It is often a good idea to discuss with your chosen Trustee some acceptable reasons for accessing the inheritance early. For example, to cover medical costs should any of the children fall seriously ill and need specialist care, or perhaps to fund some further education, or to buy a first car. You could also leave a letter detailing your intentions for the inheritance in order to help your chosen Trustee to make the decisions in the future.
There are many options when it comes to protecting your children’s inheritance through the use of a Discretionary Trust in Mersea or anywhere else throughout Essex. If you would like to discuss your options in more detail, and receive impartial advice regarding your Will, contact Andrew Douglas Wills and Legal Services via www.andrewdouglawills.co.uk today and we will arrange a free initial consultation to come and see you.
If you would like to keep up with our latest posts and advice about estate planning through the regular advice that we provide to our clients in this regard, then please also feel free to –
Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ADouglasWills.
Follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/AndrewDouglasWills.
Follow us on Google+ at https://plus.google.com/b/117915389310253337582/+AndrewdouglaswillsCoUk/posts.
