In Retirement

Photographs by Martin Neeves Photographywww.martinneeves.com

If you haven’t read about the 6 basic problems we all face it will be a good introduction before reading this page, and doing so will refresh your memory before reading on.

Getting to retirement means you still may have another 20 years (or more potentially) so if you haven’t addressed the risks, now would actually be a very good time!

The best thing you can do for your children and other beneficiaries is to preserve and protect your estate for them, afterall it is family money; if you don’t there is a very good chance they will inherit less. Putting the majority of your estate into a Lifetime Discretionary Trust (also known as The Family Protection Trust) means that it will not be subject to any Probate costs and this will save you a lot of money overall (e.g. a typical 3% probate fee on a £250,000 estate would be £7,500).

Remain in control with your own Family Trust

• Assets held in a Family Trust cannot be means-tested after 6 months have elapsed, which means they won’t be taken into account when calculating what you might be required to pay towards care costs
• You remain in control of your assets and continue to benefit from them as normal
• You will keep the Capital Gains Tax exemption on your house
• You are able to nominate someone in the family to represent your interests and set out clear instructions for them regarding how your assets should be handled
• You will also have the freedom to let your family benefit from the Trust while you are still alive to share in their pleasure
• A Family Trust would also benefit your family by helping them to avoid the huge expense associated with the distribution of your estate (probate costs)
• Your loved ones won’t have to deal with complicated probate procedures and Inland Revenue forms, making the distribution of your estate quick and easy
• When the Trust is ended, and it can last for up to 125 years, your assets will simply be distributed according to the terms of your Will, providing your family circumstances are right and they aren’t going through divorce or bankruptcy for example…

The question is, how much of your estate are you prepared to lose? It is a significant risk these days and you can do something about it.