How to fill in IHT410 relating to discretionary trust

mightbeageek

Hello,
I am currently filling out IHT forms for my dad's estate, and am unsure on how to answer IHT410 Q3.
"Was the deceased’s life assured under a jointly owned assurance policy which continues after death?" 

His life was jointly insured with his surviving spouse in a whole of life policy (second death), and so continues (with ongoing premiums).  So far it sounds like the answer to Q3 is "yes", which leads to "Give details of the policy and its value on form IHT404, ‘Jointly owned assets’ and not on this form."

However, the policy is held in a discretionary trust, so is outside of the estate.  So does this mean I should actually answer "No" to Q3? 

thanks in advance for any insight!

poseidon1

Assuming neither your father or his spouse  were included as beneficiaries of the discretionary trust, then the policy is not declarable at all on IHT 404 or anywhere else for that matter.

That was the whole point of writing the policy in trust, presumably for the benefit of his children. Can I assume you are an ongoing  trustee of the policy? If not, there needs to be trustees other than the surviving spouse.

However,  as for other issues related to Q3 of IHT 404 are you saying the life policy was the only jointly owned asset ( no house for example)?

mightbeageek

thanks for the advice - neither of my parents were beneficiaries, so agree it should be outside of the estate.  IHT410/Q3 should really be clearer on the form or in notes to make it clear to people doing the forms for the first time don't need to declare a discretionary trust.  
There are other joint assets, so I have filled out IHT404.