Legal News | 2.01.25

New relationships in later life

The start of the New Year provides the opportunity to consider making plans which reflect any recent changes in your life.

When embarking on a new relationship in later life, you may wish to consider arranging your affairs to provide for a new partner on your death, whilst preserving assets for your children from an earlier relationship to inherit.

The solution for meeting these competing aims, whilst at the same time ensuring maximum flexibility, might be to place your assets on death into a trust established under your Will.

There are various types of will trusts, including a ‘Life Interest Trust’ which provides a surviving spouse with the lifetime right to reside in any property you owned and/or receive income from your assets, whilst ring-fencing the remaining estate for the children on the death of the spouse. Alternatively, a ‘Discretionary Trust’ could provide the trustees with a wide discretion to decide who, how and when any of the beneficiaries would receive any benefit from the trust. This type of trust could also be a tax efficient option if you are not married to your partner and no spouse exemption from inheritance tax is available.

If you would like further information or advice upon Will trusts, please do get in touch with the Wansbroughs’ Private Client Team at wealth@wansbroughs.com.