InHouse Wills & Probate
Property Trust
The family home is often your major asset, one which you hope to pass on to the family. Yet you know that if you have to go into Residential Care the fees of hundreds of pounds per week might make it all disappear, leaving little for the family. Current figures suggest that there is something like a 1-in-3 chance of these fees affecting a couple and reducing a family’s inheritance - but their Wills can improve the situation.
Anyone (whether married or not) can use their Will to leave assets in ‘Trust’. For example, rather than simply leaving their share of the house to a spouse/partner it goes to a Property Trust. The exact terms of the Trust will be specific to your instructions, but usually they allow your widow(er) to carry on living in your share of the family home just as if they owned the whole property. Normally this includes being able to sell the house and buy a replacement in the usual way.
However, if the house is simply sold then your widow(er) can only use their half of the money as they wish or as they have to - such as to pay for their own residential care, or indeed to spend it, or give it to a new spouse/partner. Your share of the house is still owned by the Trust, protected according to the terms you specified and typically letting it be passed on to your family.
This is becoming increasingly common practice and InHouse, Wills & Probate can arrange this for you. We also check the details of how your house is owned, in case Severance of Tenancy is required to change from Joint Tenants to Tenants in Common so as to make your Will effective.
Protecting the family home
You’ve worked hard all your life, invested in a house, but then there is nothing to leave the family because of Long Term Care Fees etc. Can anything be done in your Will to alter that?