One of the services we can offer at DRA Legal is our Trusts services. A Trust is a legal agreement that that allows a third party or trustee to be able to hold assets on behalf of the beneficiary or beneficiaries.

Trusts can often be set up when a person has died but it can also be set up during someone’s lifetime too, these trusts are being increasingly used to avoid the need to obtain a Grant of Probate after a person’s death or to gain asset protection, a Grant of Probate is where you need to apply for a document which known as a ‘grant’, this shows that you have the right access to funds and assets- this is time consuming as on average it can take three to six months. Trusts can be arranged in several ways as they can specify how and when the assets are passed to the beneficiaries. The benefits of trusts are that you can control the wealth, it also reduces estate and fit taxes, and they are also flexible.

Trusts can have funds and assets placed in, provided this is done in the correct way, the result will be that the assets will then be held by the Trustees of the trust, the trustee of a trust is someone designated as a holder of the property and is responsible for handling any of the assets held in trust. Because the assets are held by the Trustees, they are then protected from claims by any party that is not identified as such in the Trust, they also mitigate against the factor of paying inheritance tax where tax is paid by the person who inherits the money or property of someone who has died. The inheritance tax is currently charged at a rate of 40% of all assets.

Need more information on our Trusts services? Contact our amazing team at DRA Legal and we will answer any question you have! Call us for a free consultation at 01924 601043 or by email at info@dralc.co.uk.