Why are solicitors on the deeds?

Emerion

I sent in a request to the land registry to find out the ownership of a house on a particular date. Much to my surprise, although the person I expected to find registered as the owner was on there, 2 other names were registered, which were unknown to me. The house was registered with the LR for the first time a few years ago. The owner had adult children, who might have been expected to be on the deeds maybe, but they weren’t mentioned. I googled the unknown names and they turned out to be 2 solicitors from Scotland. The house is in the South of England and the family has no connections in Scotland. Does anyone know in what circumstances someone might have done this? There was no family dispute. 

user1977

They're probably all trustees. Various reasons why a property might be put into trust, but without more context I doubt we can do any more useful guessing.

Emerion

I see, so I think it must be to reduce the value of the estate for inheritance planning. But why are the solicitors on the deeds, rather than the beneficiaries? It’s not a way of getting round the 7 year thing, whereby gifts don’t count towards an estate is it?

user1977

It's the trustees who are registered (in their capacity as trustees of the trust), not a trust's beneficiaries. Could be IHT-saving, depends what the trust says.

What's your interest?