If a will is written ' in trust'

[glitterbiscuits]

I posted a few days ago about probate with MILs will
Now I have found out that the will in question leaves everything in trust for DH.
I’m not exactly sure what that means. Possibly we don’t need probate and would not need to pay Inheritance Tax. Although she is under the thresholds unless we are massively wrong about the value of her house.

Her husband has a lifetime interest in her house. Basically he can live there rent free for ever. That’s ok with us.

The two executors are also the trustees. This is my DH and her family friend. Family friend doesn’t not want to be an executor.

If you have experience of a will in trust I would love a quick idiots guide please.

We can’t do anything until we have collected the original will which is at her solicitors 300 miles away from us.

I was hoping to do probate myself but think the trust part may put a spanner in the works

Get a solicitor to do it. If he’s only got a life interest there must be someone identified in the will to inherit it after your husband dies. You can’t simply do the conveyancing on your own. The remainderman’s interest must be protected.

I read this as being the MIL's husband has the life interest and DH (of the OP, ie the son) has the reside (as you call it the remainderman).

But the family friend must have agreed to be an executor and trustee. Bit mean to pull out now.

Yes, it's the MIL's husband that has the life interest and the DH who will inherit it after she dies.

You can make someone an executor without their agreement or prior knowledge - it's unfair to do that, though.

THis seems a reasonable explanatin

www.saga.co.uk/magazine/money/personal-finance/inheritance/setting-up-a-trust-for-beneficiaries-in-your-will

Regarding the Trustee that doesn't want to be I would speak to the solicitor - it may be that they can take it on - it sounds like MIL thought by using someone local and your Son the property would be looked after by the trustees for her Husband until he dies then it goes to your Son

Yes, her husband lives in her house. My DH is the sole beneficiary. She did ask family friend to be executor. He said no but she did it anyway.

That’s the sort of MIL she was! When our first DC was due we asked not to visit in the run up to the birth. But she suddenly needed to buy a new car a few days before I was due and found one just near us. 300 miles from where she lived. It was a 2nd hand Vauxhall. I’m sure there would have been cars nearer to her!

She was quite a character which is probably why her will is a bit different.

Won't the house automatically go to her husband until his death then it goes to your husband afterwards. The family friend named as executor has the right to relinquish that role.

No everything’s left in trust to DH. Her husband is allowed to live there rent free for life. They had only been married 10 years. The house was my DH Family home. Her husband rents out his house but doesn’t want to move back to where he used to live