Discretionary Settlements, Trusts and bank acounts

sitroenn

Hi,

Not sure if this is the right place to post. Apologies if not.

We have a son with learning difficulties who is 19. We set up a Discretionary Settlement a few years ago and have also recently set up Lasting Power of Attorney with both of us (his parents) as Nominees.

For the past ten years we have had a savings account where we set aside money for his future. This was with a High Street bank and was named the 'Mr & Mrs X: Re.: Son's Name'

After our son reached 18, we were advised by our Solicitor to relabel the name of this account so that it was associated/linked with the Discretionary Settlement i.e so that the money was safely set aside and our son could not access those monies.

The High Street bank in question insists that this would then make that account a Trust Fund account and so they cannot meet our request since they do not offer Trust Fund accounts on a personal basis -- only to business customers and for clubs etc. Asking around other High Street banks and Building Societies, we have not found any others who can set up such an account. Halifax used to offer this service but withdrew it in 2011.

Is anyone else in a similar situation or does anyone know of a bank which offers accounts which can be tied to a Trust Fund/Discretionary Settlement.

Thank you for any advice/expertise

GFA

sitroenn wrote: »

Hi,

Not sure if this is the right place to post. Apologies if not.

We have a son with learning difficulties who is 19. We set up a Discretionary Settlement a few years ago and have also recently set up Lasting Power of Attorney with both of us (his parents) as Nominees.

For the past ten years we have had a savings account where we set aside money for his future. This was with a High Street bank and was named the 'Mr & Mrs X: Re.: Son's Name'

After our son reached 18, we were advised by our Solicitor to relabel the name of this account so that it was associated/linked with the Discretionary Settlement i.e so that the money was safely set aside and our son could not access those monies.

The High Street bank in question insists that this would then make that account a Trust Fund account and so they cannot meet our request since they do not offer Trust Fund accounts on a personal basis -- only to business customers and for clubs etc. Asking around other High Street banks and Building Societies, we have not found any others who can set up such an account. Halifax used to offer this service but withdrew it in 2011.

Is anyone else in a similar situation or does anyone know of a bank which offers accounts which can be tied to a Trust Fund/Discretionary Settlement.

Thank you for any advice/expertise

These seem to be increasingly difficult to open. The only ones I know who offer this (certainly for existing customers) are:

Bank of Scotland (it is possible that this is no longer the case)
C Hoare & Co
Coutts

It may be for the latter two, there will be certain minimum salary and funding requirements that will need to be met before they do. Also the regular bank charges/fees might prove prohibitive.

xylophone

The original account was not held in bare trust for your son?

That is to say, the money always belonged beneficially to you and your husband, but you thought of it as "earmarked" for your son, a form of designated account, as it were?

If this was the case, then you are now (as indeed you always were), free to do with this money as you like?

Do you intend to gift this money into Trust for your son?

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/trusts/types/vulnerable.htm

If so, you will hold the account as Trustees of the A N Other Trust?

You need to approach the Bank/Building Society to find out what accounts they allow to be held in Trust.

Otherwise http://www.caterallen.co.uk/solutions-for-trusts might be worth a look.

Or http://www.scottishwidows.co.uk/bank/savings/trust_fund_intro.html

sitroenn

Thank you both for swift replies. I have spent another whole day trying to sort this out and funnily enough the only two banks where it seems we may be able to set up the sort of account we need are Cater Allen and Scottish Widows. However ScottWid said that in order to set up such an account we would need a current account titled 'Trust Fund for son X' and that is what we don't seem able to arrange so drew a blank there and have downloaded the application for Cater Allen.

Thank you too GFA. I shall also look at Bank of Scotland,
C Hoare & Co. and Coutts.

Any idea why it has become so difficult to arrange such accounts ? Our solicitor and the solicitor at Mencap advised us to do this so they obviously didn't anticipate problems. HSBC (where the original account based) told us they no longer offer such a service 'because it is too risky' ?

xylophone

Have you tried Barclays Bank for the current account? A relative is one of the Trustees of his late father's will trust and the account is held with Barclays.

sitroenn

I did try and contact them today but waited so long on phone I gave up. Will try again tomorrow. Thanks for advice

xylophone

Thanks for advice

Just a suggestion! Incidentally, be prepared to book an appointment and have all your and your son's identification documents ready to hand and also the Trust Deed.