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The need to write life policies into trust

It is worrying to read that over a quarter of IFAs are not advising clients about the benefits of settling life policies into trust. 

As this article points out, the proceeds of a policy that is written into trust will pay out much quicker than they would otherwise do. More importantly, if the life assured does not have a Will then the proceeds may not end up where they want.

Perhaps most worryingly, these individuals are not being advised that if the policy is not written into trust then there is a real risk that those proceeds will form part of the life assured's estate for inheritance tax purposes. 

The benefit of writing life policies into trust is something that should always be discussed as part of any estate planning review.

The report from L&G found that one-fifth of advisers could be putting life insurance customers at risk by not knowing the benefit of writing life insurance policies into trust. Just over a quarter (27 per cent) of advisers claimed that the policy application process took so long that they ran out of time to discuss it. Clients who do not have policies written into trust and who do not have a will risk their payouts not going to their desired beneficiaries.

Tags

life insurance, trusts, estate planning, setting up a trust, trusts and inheritance tax, administration of estates, private client, private wealth, inheritance tax planning, wills and succession planning