Trust Funds

JMSD

My father has left money to my 16 year old daughter in his will.  Because she is under 18, we have been told we have to create a Trust Fund for this.  That's fine, but I cannot find any banks/savings institutions who offer Trust Fund accounts, other than Skipton and the nearest branch is 20 miles away.  Would anyone know of any?

Keep_pedalling

Depending on how much is involved the simplest thing to do would be to put it in a JISA. You can only put £9000 per year in but as we are close to the end of the financial year £9k could go in by 5th April and up to £9k added on the 6th April. 

If the amount is higher than that NS&I allow trust accounts to be opened.

MEM62

JMSD said:

we have been told we have to create a Trust Fund for this.  

Told by whom?   If it is not stipulated in the will then you should be able to manage the money for her until she is 18.  

pjs493

There is a difference between an actual trust fund and money (or items) to be held in trust as often written into a Will when it comes to children inheriting. Without knowing the exact wording it’s hard to know if you (or those advising you) have unintentionally confused the two. 

When my husband and I were pregnant with our first child, we asked his financial advisor about setting up a trust fund for our child, and subsequent children, but we were told that unless we had huge amounts of money, which we didn’t, it would cost more to set up and administer than would be worth it. He said we’d be better off opening S&S JISAs and if we really didn’t want the children to access the money until, say, 21, then we’d be best keeping the account a secret until they turned that age. In the end we just opened S&S JISAs for our children. 

My husband and I had mirror Wills in which we left everything to our children in the event of our ‘disaster clause’. All assets were to be held in trust, but our Wills did not mean a trust fund. Just a trust that the named executors would be trustees of until the children reached their respective majorities. Since my husband’s death I’ve written a new Will leaving everything to our children in trust. So again, the executors of my Will will just have to look after the assets responsibly until the children turn 18. They also have discretion to draw from the assets for suitable things eg school fees, a car when they turn 17, etc. 

I think it’s worth double checking and follow the advice given above regarding JISAs and NS&I accounts. 

JMSD

Thanks,  excuse me I am incorrect.  We have been told by the solicitors that we will need to have a trust account (not fund) because minors cannot legally inherit money until they reach 18.  Thanks for the advice re: JISAs and NS&I.  Having researched this, it looks like Santander may also allow trust accounts to be set up.

pjs493

JMSD said:

Thanks,  excuse me I am incorrect.  We have been told by the solicitors that we will need to have a trust account (not fund) because minors cannot legally inherit money until they reach 18.  Thanks for the advice re: JISAs and NS&I.  Having researched this, it looks like Santander may also allow trust accounts to be set up.

As an aside, I transferred some pocket money into the savings accounts I have for my children earlier and noticed that they are deemed as ‘accounts held in trust’. I suspect all accounts set up for minors are similar because a parent or other appropriate adult needs to administer the account. 

It might be that you can simply identify the best JISA (or JISA and another high interest children’s account depending on the figure you’re talking about) and utilise these until your daughter turns 18. As trustee, your job would be to move money around to take advantage of the best rates from time to time and consider any reasonable requests to access the money before her 18th birthday, for example to purchase a car, driving lessons, or something else you feel worth using the money for.