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Property Trust Query

My wife and i have paid equally into our family home but only my name is on the deeds. I wanted to add her name on as a tenants in common us both having equal shares. As it stands at the moment my will states for my wife to have 50% on my death and my 4 children to share the other 50% equally. I wanted to draw, something up which will be able to allow her to live there for the rest of her life. When i explained this to a solicitors they have advised us to put the house and another btl we own into a property trust. This sounded like a good idea and we were initially quoted £1200 for the main residence. However the solicitor said his, senior would contact me back the following day with the finer details of it. It transpires that they require £200 a month for five years. They will then revaluate after 5 years to see if anything needs amending. It will then allow me to carry on with the trust and keep paying or cancel it. Is this correct is it not a fixed fee but an ongoing monthly amount. Anyone have ine of these to advise. Thank you 

Comments

  • Run a mile from those so called solicitors, putting your house in trust might be good for them but it serves no purpose for you and your wife other than horribly complicating things.

    Adding your wife as a joint owner is the correct thing to do, which will require both of you to make new wills. You could have the wills create an immediate post death interest trust on the first death which would but legal ownership of half the house with the trust and beneficial ownership with the surviving spouse. This protects the security of the surviving spouse and your children’s inheritance if for instance the surviving spouse married again but failed to make a new will.
  • FlorayG
    FlorayG Posts: 1,590 Forumite
    Sixth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    I've never heard of that; don't have anything more to do with those guys
    If you are tenants in common then your wife will already own half the house when you die; all you need to do is set up a life trust as said above for her not to have to sell and can stay there the rest of her life
  • Putting assets into trust before death (at least 7 years before) can be used as a way of reducing inheritance tax - which is I suspect what the solicitors are suggesting. That would likely only be worth pursuing if your assets are significantly in excess of £1million which would be the total of you and your wife's allowances if leaving assets to children. You would really need specialist advice on this.

    Creating an immediate post death interest trust in your will is different and is fairly common.
  • mattojgb said:
    Putting assets into trust before death (at least 7 years before) can be used as a way of reducing inheritance tax - which is I suspect what the solicitors are suggesting. That would likely only be worth pursuing if your assets are significantly in excess of £1million which would be the total of you and your wife's allowances if leaving assets to children. You would really need specialist advice on this.

    Creating an immediate post death interest trust in your will is different and is fairly common.
    It won’t save IHT if you continue to live in your home as it will be a gift with reservation of benefit.
  • mattojgb said:
    Putting assets into trust before death (at least 7 years before) can be used as a way of reducing inheritance tax - which is I suspect what the solicitors are suggesting.
    It won’t save IHT if you continue to live in your home as it will be a gift with reservation of benefit.
    There is still the potential for saving inheritance tax on other assets including the btl. Impossible to say for sure without knowing the values. It is also possible to avoid the reservation of benefit by paying a market rent on the property once put in trust. As I said, you would need specialist advice.
  • mattojgb said:
    mattojgb said:
    Putting assets into trust before death (at least 7 years before) can be used as a way of reducing inheritance tax - which is I suspect what the solicitors are suggesting.
    It won’t save IHT if you continue to live in your home as it will be a gift with reservation of benefit.
    There is still the potential for saving inheritance tax on other assets including the btl. Impossible to say for sure without knowing the values. It is also possible to avoid the reservation of benefit by paying a market rent on the property once put in trust. As I said, you would need specialist advice.
    You would have to give up the income from the BTL to mitigate IHT and there would likely be a CGT liability on the transfer to the trust and again on the eventual sale.
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