Discretionary trust and divorce

[3kids1dogtired]

Hi everyone.
Does anyone have any experience of discretionary trusts and divorce?
To give a bit of background, I am going through divorce (nisi due very soon) after a 25 year marriage (I'm 53, he is 50), my husband moved out in October last year and he rents a 3 bed house round the corner. We have a temporary financial agreement in place where we both pay a share of the bills for both properties. We both work full time.
Three children, two aged 16 still at home and one aged 20 at university currently. He (reluctantly) pays the minimum CMS for the 16 year olds but nothing for the 20 year old, even though they are still in f/t education.
My husband has insisted on a 50:50 split of assets since we separated, however the children all still live with me in the marital home and he sees them for a couple of hours a week. (When I asked him to have the younger two overnight from time to time, he has bought two blow up beds and sleeping bags rather than buy beds for them, which is his choice.) So they are pretty much 100% with me and have never stayed overnight with him.
Pension actuary report has been written and recommends I am given 51% of his pension. I have various smaller pensions, but I took a 7 year career break to save on childcare costs.
He has insisted on a 50:50 split throughout (i.e. I keep the house but I don't touch his pensions), but I am not in the same position as him work-wise, I have been working p/t then f/t once all three children were in school and I have been working my way back up the career ladder but it looks like I will never match his salary. So I don't agree that 50:50 is fair.
Anyway, to get to the point, I have recently discovered that he is a trustee of a discretionary trust that manages his mum's home and his dad's estate (he died in 2020). His mum and his sister are also trustees. I had no idea that this trust has been set up (in 2017) as we had separate bank accounts, so it was a shock to find this out.
Things are starting to make sense now - he got hammered with a bill to repay Child Maintenance which coincided with the trust being set up (I now realise that he has to submit a self-assessment tax return for the trust).
Also, I now understand why is is happy to "give" the house to me, as I am assuming that the trust will fund his accommodation once I have signed the financial order. He is a trustee after all.
My question is - has anyone taken a trust into consideration for income in a divorce - I don't know if he has had any payments out from the trust in the past? Also, my assumption is that as he has not yet declared being a trustee (he thinks I don't know about it) that he will be penalised when we get to court for not making a full and frank disclosure.
I have a solicitor, but I would be interested to hear other's experiences of discretionary trusts and divorce.
Thanks - that was longer than I thought!

Also he has form for "hiding" assets as he missed out one pension completely when the pension report was written - only remembered it when I reminded him. Hmmm.

Well a trustee just manages the trust. Like a solicitor would.

But is he also a potential beneficiary? That's the more important part. One for your solicitor, to find out the terms of the trust.

Thanks, my guess is that he is a beneficiary but I need to see that confirmed.
Thanks for your reply.

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Have you got a SHL OP? She or he should be onto this, and also challenge the 50/50 asset split. I have known a few people get 70/30 in favour of the person who has taken time off for children, usually the woman.

Thanks SpongeBob.
He has always been keen not to involve solicitors and to settle the finances just between us (now I know why), which I was happy to do, but I have recently engaged a solicitor, yes.
We had agreed to divorce after a 2 year separation, but things changed overnight earlier this year when he demanded that I divorce him on unreasonable behaviour grounds as he wanted to move on right away, rather than wait for two years as agreed. So I set the wheels in motion for that.
I had a feeling that something had changed with finances because of that about turn and recently I read that there is a specified time limit for the wishes outlined in a will that involved assets being left to a trust, to be actioned - two years. So he now needs this to be sorted by early 2022, two years after his dad died.
I started to feel suspicious when I asked for a copy of the will and he point blank refused to show it to me. My solicitor has just formally requested a copy, on the grounds of full and frank disclosure but nothing has yet been provided.

So now you know what a snake he is, the gloves are off.

Absolutely I do.

Been there, got the t shirt. Hard when you find you need to play hard ball. I've seen many women roll over for a quiet life, and suffer financially. I didn't, and it sounds like you won't either. Stay strong! Feel free to message me if you need to.

If Probate has been granted, then you can obtain a copy of the Will by searching here... www.gov.uk/search-will-probate

If he is a trustee and beneficiary then I think he wouldn't be in as strong a position as he thinks. You need a SHL as suggested above.

Thanks - I tried that website, but it seems there is no need for probate when the estate is left to a trust. Something else I have learned over the past few weeks!

I was in a similar situation, but I knew about the trust. His share is around £1.5m and it’s one where none of the beneficiaries inherit until exh’s stepmother dies. I settled for a 55:45 split of assets excluding the trust (which still leaves me v comfortable) on the proviso that when the trust pays out (which we hope will be a while still) it passes directly to our 2 children and not him.

Thanks for that and for sharing your experience.
I am still in shock that the trust exists, being honest, as I knew literally nothing about it.
My solicitor knows that I now know about it, and has advised me not to let him know that I know IYSWIM, until he admits it himself (or doesn't).
An online search tells me that if he doesn't disclose his interest in the trust (as trustee and/or beneficiary) on his financial declaration and things go to court, then he might be asked to pay my costs and my share of the pot could be increased in my favour as a result. It will be interesting to see the details of the trust and the list of beneficiaries, as I might even be one myself!
The funny (or not) thing is that he is crying poverty as it seems he now has no money left at the end of each month, due to having to pay CM to me.

It will depend on who the other trustees and the beneficiaries of the trust are. Basically the court can't make an order that the trustees have to release funds from the trust as part of a divorce settlement, but they can take into account how the trust is likely to be distributed. If it's just (say) DH and one or two others as beneficiaries, it's likely that he will end up receiving a substantial chunk of the trust capital and this fact will be considered when looking at his resources.

Thanks. I don't yet know who the other beneficiaries are, but I am keen to find that out.

His mum and sister are the only other trustees.