Joint Trustees

Carlisle1967

With regards to a trust fund where there are two trustees, it is my understanding that there needs to be a specific trust account opened to keep the money in?

Obviously if one of the trustees opened a account in their they own name they would have sole control over the account and distribution of any funds in there or does it not work that way and regardless both trustees would need to authorize any payments made?

Keep_pedalling

Yes, the cash needs to be held in a trust account, and good luck with finding one that pays a reasonable amount of interest. This is one thing people don’t think about when adding such complications to a will, which is why I would never lumber my executors or my wife with trusts. It is fairly straightforward leaving a spouse with a life tenancy of a share of a house, but for liquid assets it’s just not worth the aggro involved.

Carlisle1967

Thank you

I am not so worried about the interest part of it as long as both trustees have to be involved and cannot open / have control of the accounts without the other party being involved.

Think Barclays do one there shouldn't be anything that will need to be paid in general out as the surviving spouse is spending less than what is coming in each month. 

Keep_pedalling

NS&I do trust accounts as well, and have the advantage of not being restricted to the £85k FSCS compensation limit.

Carlisle1967

Thank you, Probate has only now just been granted and as per my other post, the other trustee has already applied to Barclays without any input from myself, even mentioning that they could put money in an account in their name but surely that would be illegal?

Keep_pedalling

Carlisle1967 said:

Thank you, Probate has only now just been granted and as per my other post, the other trustee has already applied to Barclays without any input from myself, even mentioning that they could put money in an account in their name but surely that would be illegal?

They should absolutely not be putting the money into a sole account in their own name. As long as they are keeping it separate from their own funds or helping themselves to any of it is not illegal but is going to cause some tax issues for themselves.