Discretionary Trust

[ZebraF]

A relative has just passed away and on reading the Will it seems my DH has been named as one of the trustees for a discretionary trust. A portion of the estate is to be placed in the trust to fund the education of specific children in a developing country. The children are named in the Will but there are no details about how to contact their families or how to pay money to the country in question. We have no trusted contacts there.
This is totally unexpected and on reading about the responsibilities of a trustee my DH is concerned. We can’t get an appointment with the solicitor to begin probate for several weeks.
All the trustees have been named in the Will without their consent and are worried about how to fulfil the role given how little information there is about the beneficiaries.
What happens now? If a solicitor is appointed to manage the trust would they be paid out of the estate or the trust? The sum of money is a relatively large percentage of a small estate so the other beneficiaries of the Will are concerned about the Trust swallowing up their small inheritance in management fees.

My guess is that your relative was funding these children through a UK charity such as ActionAid, World Vision or Compassion UK. All the trustees need to do, therefore, is figure out which charity was involved and continue making payments to that charity.

@prh47bridge

My guess is that your relative was funding these children through a UK charity such as ActionAid, World Vision or Compassion UK. All the trustees need to do, therefore, is figure out which charity was involved and continue making payments to that charity.

Agree with this.

Also is the trust already established? If so ask for copies of the trust deed as it should name the beneficiaries in there.

The trust deed should also give names of existing trustees (if already established) so you could get info from them.

@prh47bridge

My guess is that your relative was funding these children through a UK charity such as ActionAid, World Vision or Compassion UK. All the trustees need to do, therefore, is figure out which charity was involved and continue making payments to that charity.

No charity involved unfortunately. He used to visit the country regularly on holidays and give money to the families whilst he was there. As far as we know the trust isn’t already established, just decribed in the Will, and the estate might have to pay the costs of setting it up?

Ok. So first find out for sure if the trust is established. This will give a starting point either way.

If it’s not then your dh doesn’t have to act as trustee. He can appoint the solicitor instead if he wants. But there’ll be a cost for this.

If it is then dh will need to resign as trustee. And potentially appoint someone else depending on who else is trustee.

If it’s a discretionary trust then the trustees do not have to send money. The beneficiaries aren’t entitled to it as it’s all at trustees discretion.

If dh continues as trustee then I’d suggest speaking with solicitor or having a look at STEP’s website (society of trust estate practitioners) for guidence.

I work with offshore trusts and this sort of thing isn’t uncommon and there will usually be all the facts somewhere.

If the families are named in the will there will be a way to contact them. Even if you speak to solicitor there may be a way of finding a professional in that country to locate the families. Which country is it?