Husband wants to put all his pensions in trust for kids.

[messiejessie]

My husband wants to put all his sizeable corporate pensions in trust for our 3 kids, should he die which is free of IHT.
I have a very small pension but do benefit from rental property I brought into the marriage. His point is that I wouldn't need his pension,
we are both 50 and in good health and i hope we would have a lot more living to do do and enjoy our life. Our kids are still at school or uni. The marriage is rocky,

It seems to me that he is trying to prevent me from benefiting from our joint assets if he were to die. If I died unexpectedly and left everything to him, including a substantial property and a rental there would be nothing to protect my share (for our kids) from a second marriage for example.
Would it not be fairer to put aside 5o percent of the pensions for the kids and 50 to me? In any case I wouldn't want our kids to inherit too early as they have not established their own careers yet or met life partners . I think giving kids money too early is a bad idea. (This is theoretical of course as no one is planning on dying just yet) I am very thankful we are in a good position all round financially, but nevertheless I would like some advice as I feel uneasy about being bulldozed into this.
AIBU ? Is this good financial planning for IHT? Can it be reversed?
AINBU? Should I be wary and seek financial advice from a lawyer or accountant given I have not much pension of my own ?

OP - you can of course go to a meeting with his Trust advisors. BUT they will only be telling you how the trust is set up. They won't be telling you anything about the implication of such trust on the marital assets and your position in divorce.
Your H may even offer you to become a Trustee. But it will not really change anything for you - you won't be able to access that money if you divorce.

I know you are in shock. I saw the same thing happen to a friend - and shock was her initial reaction. She quickly found a solicitor - who then sent her H a letter stating that she did not agree with moving family assets to a Trust. The letter could not stop it - of course. But it accelerated their rocky relationship to divorce within a short time and the money in the Trust were added back to family assets when they were dividing the money.

You are probably still in denial about your H intentions and you think that there is something to "understand" about this trust. But there is not. In a rocky relationship, with both of you still in your 50s - there is only one reason he is doing it. He is simply putting assets out of your reach, in case you divorce. I don't know if he is definitely planning to divorce - but he is certainly preparing for the worst case. (If you were super wealthy - with many properties and assets you wanted to pass on - then yes, setting up Trusts would have made sense. But that is not your situation)

Trouble is - once the trust is set up, he can add more of "his" money to the trust. You will have no transparency on anything. He does not have to tell you.
Not addressing this now - is quite risky for you.

So many women get blindsided by trusting that their Hs won't be cruel and will be fair in divorce. But many men, like your H - with "Big" jobs get to their 40-50s and decide that women who sacrificed careers to raise their children - do not deserve half of "their" hard earned assets. And they turn nasty. Like your H.

I didn’t say she can block it, but that she shouldn’t agree to it.

If she makes it clear that she doesn’t agree to it and he still does it then he’s going against her wishes.

OP should get legal advice.

This,OP.

This is what I thought of immediately when you mentioned your marriage is rocky.

He may be getting his ducks in a row before divorcing you.

Get legal advice asap.

For good reason, it’s the law !
I assume you’re a man who needs to educate himself on this, lol !

I am repeating myself but reading what has been posted I need to say this again:

Most DC pensions are set up as trusts already. You cannot just give it to someone else. You can nominate who you want to benefit in the event of your death. The provider will not look at your nomination until you die. They will normally follow your wishes but they have a duty to consider any financial dependants who can prove they were reliant on you, especially if you have remarried and had children since you submitted a nomination.

DB pensions are different, most of them will only pay a reduced amount to dependants and some nothing at all.

He's certainly not behaving like a man who wants to restore trust following infidelity.

More like a man who's planning his next move.

His actions speak volumes here.

Sorry OP.

So firstly if he's looking at an asset preservation trust he is about 8 years out of date. ANYONE that recommends that is seriously missing the point on the pension freedoms legislation. If money passes to a trust on death the money is taxed on entry. It may carry a tax credit, but this is not as valuable as the money being 'whole' and is certainly detrimental were he to die before 75 tempting to kill the idiot but not yet
May I suggest that this is telling you something and it is time to secure your position with a form E and a move towards divorce.

You need to assume divorce is on the cards.

But also - you still have 15 years before state pension - your best course of action is to start saving as much of your earnings as possible into a private pension.

These days spousal maintenance is rare and if you've got older kids you won't get any child maintenance for long, so get as much saved as possible while you are living in the family home benefitting from his income for bills etc.

I think that’s outrageous, if he goes first you should get everything and the kids should get what’s left after you pass.

Trouble is that if OP remarries the estate could end up with the new spouse and the kids end up with nothing. That's why interest in possession trusts (Will Trusts) are so popular, whereby the estate passes to the spouse for their use during their lifetime, but passed down to the children on the second death, thus maintaining the ultimate beneficiary and preventing a new spouse from inheriting "by the back door" so to speak.

Hmm, just alter Will if planning divorce

Consult a very good divorce lawyer now.