Family Trusts & Asset Protection

Our lawyers can help you protect assets and wealth for the benefit of your family, both now and in the future.

Providing for your family is an essential goal for most people, but it isn’t always easy - simply passing wealth on in your Will or as gifts while you're alive can be risky and inefficient.

We can help you set up a trust to make sure that your family gets the most out of your assets. A trust can:

Protect assets for family members who can’t look after assets themselves
Protect assets from business creditors or divorcing spouses
Prevent an inheritance from affecting someone’s entitlement to state benefits
Provide for young children in an income tax efficient way
Provide for both a current spouse and children from an earlier relationship
Protect family members’ estates from large inheritance tax bills when they die
Reduce your spouse’s tax burden when you die.

When setting up your trust, you choose the people who will look after your assets – the trustees - and who will benefit from them – the beneficiaries. You can leave instructions for how the trustees should manage the assets and how they should distribute the assets.

The trust will continue to protect your assets after you have passed away or have lost the capacity to manage your own affairs. With a discretionary trust, you can give your trustees the flexibility to handle whatever new circumstances might arise after you’re gone.

Our Tax, Trusts, and Estates team is one of the most highly rated in the country. With lawyers in major cities across Britain and extensive international experience, we can help wherever you or your family are based.

Detailed knowledge of tax issues related to trusts

Offices across the country

Experts on advising how trusts can protect your assets

Experience in creating trusts tailored to your needs

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Family Trusts & Asset Protection - More Information

Irwin Mitchell are a very professional, trustworthy and straightforward company to deal with. I would recommend them to anyone."

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Frequently Asked Questions

Who Can I Protect Assets For?

Many people create trusts to protect assets for loved ones who can’t look after the assets themselves. You might want to protect assets for:

Young children
People suffering from serious illnesses or disabilities
People at risk of unsuitable influences or addictions
People who are reckless or untrustworthy with their finances.

When you set up your trust, you can leave instructions for how trustees should react if a family member joins or leaves one of these categories. For example, you might let your descendants have more access to trust assets after a certain age, or restrict their access if they behave irresponsibly.

You can also decide how much discretion your trustees have when making decisions like these.

A trust can help you protect assets for other family members as well by reducing the impact of inheritance or income tax.

What Are The Different Types Of Asset Protection Trusts?

There are many different types of trust that you can create to protect assets for your family, including:

Full discretionary trusts
Trusts with income entitlements
Will trusts
Lifetime trusts
Specific trusts for people with disabilities.

The type of trust that is best for you will depend on your individual circumstances and what you want to achieve.

You might choose a flexible discretionary trust that can adapt to changing situations in the future. Alternatively, you might prefer a tightly restricted trust that only allows assets to be used in very specific ways to benefit specific people.

Our specialist trust solicitors will listen to your precise needs and requirements and explain all your options in plain English. We’ll use our extensive experience with trusts, wills, tax, and more to advise what we think is best for you and your family.

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Private Client Team of the Year - Legal Business Awards 2018

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Family Trusts & Asset Protection

For general enquiries

Family Trusts & Asset Protection - More Information

What Is A Trust?

What Are Settlors, Trustees and Beneficiaries?

Who Can Be A Beneficiary?

How Do I Set Up A Lifetime Trust?

What Assets Can I Put In A Trust?