Trust vs Will?

[otterbaby]

We have a trust in place through our life insurance where FIL is named as the trustee. We are in the process of creating a will where everything is to be left to our baby daughter.

How do you ensure that the money from the life insurance goes to her rather to him? Does this need to be written into the will or is it a moot point and as the trustee, he is only responsible for ensuring that money goes to her (should both my husband and I die).

I just want to make everything as simple as possible!

Thanks!

If the life insurance is written in trust, it will not form part of your estate so will not be affected by anything you put in your will. It will be up to the trustees of the life insurance scheme who gets the money, although normally they will follow any expression of wishes that you have completed and sent to them.

If the life insurance is not written in trust it will form part of your estate so you can specify what happens to it in your will.

Thanks for the clarification 🙂

Something that might be worth thinking about is whether having someone in the generation above you as trustee. Depending on ages and general health it might be easier to have someone in your own generation.