House trust

BananasMSE

Hi, we’ve had advice on a ‘free’ mirror will. Obviously there are chargeable add on elements. 1 option is to put our house in trust. I cannot find enough information anywhere to decide on this. Cost is £3k so big decision. Reasons for; avoid son losing his inheritance to care home fees and also avoid if he divorced our house would be ringfenced for him and not to an ex-wife. Reasons against; the cost for something that could be overturned by future govt decisions, may never need care home, would prefer care at home if needed and possible, if care homes are poor may wish to pay for something better. I don’t know if I’ve thought of everything so looking for advice/experience/any good sites to look on. Thanks in advance 🥰

relaxtwotribes

Are you intending to continue living in the house after putting it into a trust?  Do you want my granny to pay taxes to fund a care home for you, whilst your son gets the house?

mebu60

Look up 'deprivation of assets'. 

Misslayed

I don't really know, but something tells me the 'advice' from a free will writer to put your house into a trust has a lot to do with the £3000 fee 🙄. It's very (very) rarely a good idea for many reasons, which will no doubt become even more apparent from responses to your thread. 

badmemory

Perhaps you should also consider whether you want to be in an "over my dead body" care home.  The choice is very limited if you are not paying.

RAS

The marital home is exempt from care fees whilst you are both alive and one of you living there.

One option is that you sever the tenancy (become tenants in common) and in your wills both leave your portion of the house to your son if you die first, with life interest trust to the survivor. That ensures that if the widowed spouse remarries, half the house is protected for your son, and if the spouse needs care fees, the capital is protected for him.

Getting a proper STEP solicitor to your wills, including the IPDI trust would cost £3-500, rather less you might be charged by these free will writers. And the proper solicitors'll ask you to check other issues, like what happens if your son dies before you, and a disaster situation. 

I'm not sure any will can protect the house from your divorce or your son's divorce however.

Please go and see a proper STEP solicitor. It'll be cheaper in the long run. 

There are a number of threads here where people trying to protect houses have made their children liable for substantial additional taxes and financial costs because they got trusts wrong. 

tls123

Be careful of will writing companies they are quite often unregulated to offer advice. They are often cheaper than using a solicitor. Unless you fully understand the implications please don’t go ahead especially at such a price. 

RAS

tls123 said:

Be careful of will writing companies they are quite often unregulated to offer advice. They are often cheaper than using a solicitor. Unless you fully understand the implications please don’t go ahead especially at such a price. 

They are almost always unregulated. So there is no come back if their advice is wrong, if they even exist by the time the will is executed.