Should I use a Professional Trustee for my Family Trust?

Having taken the time and effort to select the best vehicle for their estate planning, clients also want to ensure the right people benefit from their money.  Transferring assets into a trust, with a professional trustee, helps to ensure the assets go to the correct beneficiaries at the right time. Most importantly, following the original wishes of the settlor.

TRUSTEE RESPONSIBILITIES

A regular problem that we see for clients is that of choosing whom to appoint as trustee of their trust.  The role of trustee is one that can be burdensome and carries with it great and sometimes onerous responsibilities. This will become more important over the next year with the changes to registering trusts from Anti-Money Laundering Directive 5 (5MLD). To read more about this, please check out our blog post.

However, many financial advisors and accountants are wary of undertaking the role of professional trustee. This is due to the additional responsibilities and, sometimes, the possibility of a conflict of interest arising.  Therefore, appointing a separate professional trustee provides a convenient way for the client to combine investment management with a professional trust service.

The use of trusts has changed over the last 20 years as more people have become aware of the advantages of trusts, but also their limitations. Wealthy clients should be considering their estate planning earlier to ensure they can fully utilise the allowances that are available to them. Especially since there could well be some Inheritance Tax (IHT) changes on the horizon.

ADVANTAGES OF PROFESSIONAL TRUSTEES

There are many advantages to having a professional act as trustee.

• It avoids any problems selecting personal trustees such as family members.
• Professional Trustees make objective trustee decisions and keep to the original aims of the trust via a letter of wishes.
• Decisions can be made without personal complications or conflicts. Therefore, the client can be confident their wishes will be followed.

Appointing a professional trustee means all trust paperwork is professionally dealt with respecting the client’s wishes.  The client has confidence the trust provisions and trust laws are not being breached. There is also a consistency of service.

CONTACT US

Contact us today if you would like more information about appointing a professional trustee.

We can also help those clients with existing trusts who are looking to change Trustees or update the Trustees in the event of death. Please call us to discuss this in more detail on 0161 282 0444.