Managing Death Benefit Trusts

Offering death benefits can give your employees some assurance that their families will have financial support if they pass away. Protecting this money so it benefits these families properly, can be complicated and sensitive. Our solicitors can help take the hassle out of death benefit trusts by managing them for your business.

If an employee dies in service, benefits from their pension or group life assurance get paid to their family at the discretion of the pension scheme trustees. If your employee has young children, a way to protect these benefits is in a trust, but the benefits are often small sums of money.

If you have many employees, you may have to manage a high number of small trusts which could get expensive. It’s also time consuming to keep up-to-date with all the changes in tax and trust law.

Our experienced solicitors can manage many trusts in a cost-effective way that works for you. Our service also makes sure each trust is managed in a way that will benefit its beneficiaries. You’ll get a comprehensive service that covers setting up the trusts, day-to-day administration, and the final distribution of funds.

Our in-house professional trustee company also act as trustees to make sure the trust is managed correctly so you can avoid any regulatory issues.

If you’d like to talk about how we can help your business, call us on 0370 1500 100 or contact us online.

What’s Involved In Managing Death Benefit Trusts?

Managing death benefit trusts often involve:

  • Drafting a suitable trust document
  • Acting as professional trustees
  • Planning an investment strategy to protect the funds for the beneficiaries
  • Dealing with HMRC requirements
  • Considering the beneficiaries’ needs if they change as they grow older
  • Distributing funds to beneficiaries when appropriate.

Our expert team have an in-depth knowledge of setting up and managing trusts, while also helping trustees carry out their duties. We work efficiently to solve any problems such as making sure the funds last for young beneficiaries or dealing with capital gains tax issues.

Contact out team today and we’ll discuss our services and any concerns you have. Call us on 0370 1500 100.

Who Can We Help?

We work with any business that offers death benefits to their employees. Our team manage the death benefit trusts for some of the UK’s leading businesses, such as:

  • IBM
  • Morrisons
  • Sainsbury’s
  • Superdrug
  • Tesco
  • Rolls Royce.

Whether you want to offer death benefits as a new perk or already have a scheme, we can advise on what would suit your business. We work with businesses of any size and because we’re a well-established law firm with decades of experience, we can handle large schemes with many employees.

How Does Irwin Mitchell’s Death Benefit Trusts Service Work?

All you’ll need to do is transfer the death benefit payment to our in-house trust company – Irwin Mitchell Trustees Limited. We’ll then hold these funds in a trust for the beneficiaries of the employee that’s died, taking into consideration any guidance that you give.

Our team of trust, accounting and tax specialists will work together to manage the trust. We’ll make sure every decision that’s made will be in the best interest of the beneficiaries.

A big part of managing a trust is making sure the trustees are up to the job. Many of our lawyers act as trustees on private and pension trusts. This gives us detailed, hands-on knowledge of the duties of a trustee and issues they could face. We’ll be there to guide trustees to make the right decisions and avoid any regulatory issues.

Why Choose Irwin Mitchell?

Our team is made up of legal and financial experts that work together to manage every aspect of a trust. We have over 60 years’ experience in tax and trust administration with an established track record for managing death benefit trusts for businesses across the UK.

We’ll work closely with you to understand your requirements. By working with us you’ll get practical, independent advice every step of the way.

No matter if we’re dealing with small amounts or large funds, we’ll always tailor our approach to meet the needs of each trust. Our death benefit trust experts are based in our Chichester office but we work with businesses across the UK.

Contact our team today by filling out our online form or calling us on 0370 1500 100.

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