Protective Property Trust

 

A Protective Property Trust is designed to provide a right of occupation and income whilst protecting capital for your chosen beneficiaries. The person who is granted these rights is known as the Life Tenant. 

 

Protective Property Trusts are commonly used in Wills where a couple are co-owners of a property and wish to ensure that the surviving co-owner has full use and enjoyment of the trust asset. 

 

A Protective Property Trust will:

 

Provide you with peace of mind that your chosen beneficiaries will inherit your share of the property by providing you with control over the eventual distribution. 

 

Protect from sideways disinheritance. This occurs where a surviving co-owner forms a new relationship and changes their Will in favour of the new partner and any step-children. 

 

Protect the trust asset from third party creditors for means testing. The Life Tenant is not deemed to own the asset in the Trust, and it is therefore useful in cases of divorce, bankruptcy, and local authority assessment. 

 

Provide flexibility for the Life Tenant by allowing them to purchase a new property and attach the protection of the Trust to that property.

 

Be efficient for inheritance tax purposes for spouses as the trust asset is treated as passing directly to the Life Tenant which therefore qualifies for spousal exemption. 

 

Although a PPT is effective in preserving capital for future beneficiaries, it does not allow for the Life Tenant to access the capital should they face future financial hardship. In such circumstances a Flexible Life Interest Trust would be a more favourable option. 

 

KEY FACTS

 

The trust creates rights for a surviving spouse or chosen life tenant during their lifetime. 

 

The share of the property held in trust is not assessed as an asset of the surviving spouse. 

 

The trust is an interest in possession trust and is not taxed as part of the relevant property regime.