Would you use a Discretionary Trust for estate planning?

valueman1

To protect against future loss from divorce, bankruptcy, addiction.

Browntoa

No

A badly written up discretionary trust can end up costing your estate more than accepting the very low risk that someone needs council care . 

Mandatory disregard normally protects estates as the spouse or partner means it's ignored for care evaluation. 

Scare tactics by a booming industry, many who are not legally trained to do the complex work involved 

MEM62

No

Complex, difficult to unwind and often the basis for trust becomes irrelevant over time as the circumstances of the people connected to it change.  You would be highly unlikely to persuade me to use one.       

theoretica

No

Would you like to receive inheritance outright or entangled in a trust and paperwork?

HappyHarry

Yes - in the right circumstances.
No - in the wrong circumstances.

OP - in this post and others you seem to be asking what other people may or may not use to help mitigate inheritance tax. Other people's circumstances, objectives and knowledge of the area will all be very different from your own, so the responses to these polls are unlikely to be beneficial to you.

Keep_pedalling

The OP has some rather specific requirements that won’t apply to most of us. They want to mitigate their potential IHT liability, but don’t want their children to get anything before their 40th birthdays in case they blow it on addictions, bankruptcy or gold digging partners. 

A DT is probably the only way to control things beyond the grave providing you can find trustees who won’t use their discretion to do something different.  

Aegis

I've had a few clients query whether IHT planning is best done with trusts, and my answer is always "depends if you have a reason to use one, but usually no".  This sounds like it might be one of the rare circumstances where it would make sense because the added cost and complexity is the price you pay for the additional control over the assets if you are worried about specific issues like those described.  

I often say that one of the ironies of trusts is that they're usually justified by a lack of trust for someone.

Bostonerimus1

I use a trust just to avoid probate.

edgex

Keep_pedalling said:

The OP has some rather specific requirements that won’t apply to most of us. They want to mitigate their potential IHT liability, but don’t want their children to get anything before their 40th birthdays in case they blow it on addictions, bankruptcy or gold digging partners. 

A DT is probably the only way to control things beyond the grave providing you can find trustees who won’t use their discretion to do something different.  

They could always have a mid-life crisis & spend it all!
Or be divorced/widowed & get a new partner.