solutions

 

There are things that you can do but you need to act early:

Mental Incapacity

If you wish to avoid the problems which arise if you lose your ability to deal with your affairs, then the best solution is for you to set up a Power of Attorney which appoints someone else to look after your affairs on your behalf. If however you decide not to do so or have failed to do so but you have set up a Family Protection Trust and transfer the bulk of your assets into that Trust, then the trustees will continue to act in the same way as an Attorney would. Moreover the trustees will have more freedom of action than an Attorney which is usually better.

Executry Costs

Depending on the level of capital you leave outwith the Trust there may be no executry procedure required and therefore no executry costs. Your estate can be administered right away which is what your families usually want.

Sideways Disinheritance

If you are a couple then this problem can be avoided by each of you setting up a Family Protection Trust and transferring the bulk of your assets into the Trust. When one dies, the survivor will still have the benefit of that one’s assets but if the survivor re-marries then those assets will not pass to a new spouse and therefore there will be no risk of these assets being inherited by someone else’s family.

Children’s Legal Rights

If this is something which is a concern, then again the solution is a Family Protection Trust. If you put the bulk of your assets into a Family Protection Trust then when you die these assets technically do not belong to you and therefore your children can only claim a share of those assets which you have kept outwith the Trust. All of the assets within the Trust will be protected from your children’s legal rights claims.

Children Inheriting In the Wrong Circumstances

Again you can set up a Family Protection Trust and transfer the bulk of your assets into the Trust. During your lifetime you control those assets and when you die your chosen trustees will control those assets in line with your wishes.

This means that if at the time you die it is sensible for the assets to be distributed to your beneficiaries then that is what will happen. If however the trustees take the view that is not what you would have wanted those assets can continue to be protected within the Trust.

To receive qualified and ethical advice in relation to any aspect of your Scottish Will-Writing and Estate Planning requirements, please visit our contact page.