But exactly how safe is your beneficiary’s inheritance?

  
For most people, their greatest investment in life is their home, something they cherish until the day they can pass it on to their loved ones.

But how can you protect your share of your home to ensure that your loved ones do in fact benefit from your lifetime investment? How can you stop your spouse's future partner from taking your children's inheritance after you have died? How can you stop local authorities forcing a sale of your property to pay for care home fees?

The answer is protect your family home with a property trust in your will.

What is a Property Trust? A property trust is a Life Interest Trust within your will designed to protect your family home. Here's how it works:

When making your will, you gift your share of your residential home (or any other residential property) in trust to your children or other beneficiaries.

As you would not want to create a situation where your surviving partner has to leave the family home after your death, we include a 'Lifetime Interest' clause. This clause allows your partner to remain in the property, or any subsequent property purchased after your death, until his or her death.

Upon the death of your surviving partner, your share of the property will pass to your chosen beneficiaries as you instructed in your will.

What if my spouse remarries?

Should your surviving partner cohabit or remarry after your death and perhaps wish to change his or her Will, he or she will only be able to leave their share of the property to any new beneficiaries, leaving your share intact to go to your chosen beneficiaries as specified in the trust.

Will my partner be able to buy a different property after I die?
Yes, should your surviving spouse wish to move to a larger or smaller home, they are free to do so. They may use the trust money i.e. theirs and your share of the property and transfer it to another property. Then your share of the property will pass to your children as before.

Another benefit of the trust is that, should your surviving partner require residential care in the future, as your share of the property is held in trust to your beneficiaries, Local Authorities may not be able to include that share in any calculations they make regarding future care home costs.

If like most, your property has been purchased on a Joint Tenancy basis, you will need to change the ownership to a 'Tenancy in Common' basis. (i.e. you both own 50% each). We will deal with this for you when writing your will.

WillScript - making sure your Will is done!