How do I set up Discretionary Trust or similar

JJ237_2

My parents' wills state that their estate be left in trust to whichever spouse survives .
They were both in a care home before he died recently and their assets/incomes were treated separately.
There is no property (they sold their house and split the equity about 6 years ago) and the cash left in the estate is around £60k. She has spent her share on care for the past 6 years and is now having her care costs met by the local authority who in turn take all of her income from both state and widow pensions, leaving her approx £30 p/w personal allowance.
The trust details seem to be set out quite clearly in the will and suggest a discretionary trust be set up by the trustees (myself and my brother). I believe this means that this money cannot be taken into account when her assets are assessed for care home fees. Is this right?
I am not sure what to do next. The bank accounts have been frozen so we are in limbo. I am loathe to pay a solicitor as it seems the details are already down in the will and I feel it should be straightforward.
Do I just ask the bank for a trustee account? Are they all the same? Or is there some more formal path I must go down?

Yorkshireman99

JJ237 wrote: »

My parents' wills state that their estate be left in trust to whichever spouse survives .
They were both in a care home before he died recently and their assets/incomes were treated separately.
There is no property (they sold their house and split the equity about 6 years ago) and the cash left in the estate is around £60k. She has spent her share on care for the past 6 years and is now having her care costs met by the local authority who in turn take all of her income from both state and widow pensions, leaving her approx £30 p/w personal allowance.
The trust details seem to be set out quite clearly in the will and suggest a discretionary trust be set up by the trustees (myself and my brother). I believe this means that this money cannot be taken into account when her assets are assessed for care home fees. Is this right?
I am not sure what to do next. The bank accounts have been frozen so we are in limbo. I am loathe to pay a solicitor as it seems the details are already down in the will and I feel it should be straightforward.
Do I just ask the bank for a trustee account? Are they all the same? Or is there some more formal path I must go down?

As executors you first need to apply for probate. What you do then depends on the exact wording of the will. As executors you will need to gather in the assets and pay any debts including the funeral expenses first. You really need to get professional advice on exactly what the will specifys.Few banks offer truistee accounts but the rules for trusatee investments need to be followed.

Keep_pedalling

Yorkshireman99 wrote: »

As executors you first need to apply for probate. What you do then depends on the exact wording of the will. As executors you will need to gather in the assets and pay any debts including the funeral expenses first. You really need to get professional advice on exactly what the will specifys.Few banks offer truistee accounts but the rules for trusatee investments need to be followed.

If it really is a cash only estate and the money does not sit with a single bank you may be able to proceed without the need to go to probates as most banks will do so up to quite high levels, Barclays for instance will allow this up to £30,000.

Whether you need probate or not the big problem is going to be where to hold the assets that need to go into the trust. Few organisations provide trust accounts, and the value is to low to do much other than hold in cash. One simple option would be to place in NS&I who do allow accounts to be set up for trusts.