Moving assets to a trust under a will

balooney2000

My relative has recently passed away and she left her estate in trust for her sister. It will be distributed to the family after the sister's death.

As the trust is mostly savings accounts can these be moved directly into the trust, without having to close the accounts and open new ones as a trustee?

Yorkshireman99

balooney2000 wrote: »

My relative has recently passed away and she left her estate in trust for her sister. It will be distributed to the family after the sister's death.

As the trust is mostly savings accounts can these be moved directly into the trust, without having to close the accounts and open new ones as a trustee?

You need to ask the financial intritutions involved but robaly not. How much money is involved.

Keep_pedalling

Almost certainly not, as this money needs to be placed in a trustees account, and you will vindicate very few places that offer these.

Keeping this in cash is going to be a very poor option, as you are unlikely to get anything above 1% interest on it, so little income for the sister and inflation eating away at the capital. Depending on the amount involved investing for the long term may be a better option especially if the sister could be expected to live a long time.

balooney2000

I understand your comments re the amount of interest being outweighed by solicitors costs but since this has been specified there seem to be no way around carrying out the wishes in the will.

Keep_pedalling

balooney2000 wrote: »

I understand your comments re the amount of interest being outweighed by solicitors costs but since this has been specified there seem to be no way around carrying out the wishes in the will.

If the sister agrees, then the terms of the will can be varied by a deed of variation.

AnotherJoe

Are you sure about that? Since the family are also ultimately beneficiaries wouldn't they also have to agree ? Otherwise sister could decide to invest it in any cockamamie scheme and lose it all.

Keep_pedalling

AnotherJoe wrote: »

Are you sure about that? Since the family are also ultimately beneficiaries wouldn't they also have to agree ? Otherwise sister could decide to invest it in any cockamamie scheme and lose it all.

Only beneficiaries who are adversely affected by the DoV need to agree to it. I was thinking along the lines of the sister giving up her lifetime interest, so the legacy can pass to the children immediately.

This makes sense since her lifetime interest is pretty worthless as it stands.

balooney2000

We do not want to vary the wishes contained in the will but the sister has dementia and her affairs are operated by a POA. Can the POA make a dov?

Keep_pedalling

balooney2000 wrote: »

We do not want to vary the wishes contained in the will but the sister has dementia and her affairs are operated by a POA. Can the POA make a dov?

No, that is beyond their remit.

Have you spoken to the professional trustee, to see if they are willing to hand their trustee role over to a member of the family? There is no benefit to having a professsional involved, when about all you can do with the money is to stick it into a trustee account to earn a tiny amount of interest.

balooney2000

Further to this, there is now only one family member who will act as trustee, as the solicitor has renounced his role.

Does anyone know what type of accounts / any institutions which offer accounts that can be operated by a trustee?

Keep_pedalling

balooney2000 wrote: »

Further to this, there is now only one family member who will act as trustee, as the solicitor has renounced his role.

Does anyone know what type of accounts / any institutions which offer accounts that can be operated by a trustee?

There are very few, and they will pay very little interest if any. I understand NS&I will hold trust money, so that is probably your best route, you will have to have a second trusteee though.

The solicitor probably withdrew because there will be no income to pay his fees.