What goes in a Trust document? I have a life assurance policy that I want to put into Trust for my dc. I've seen a solicitor about this and was reassured it was really straightforward. I've now received the paperwork back but have questions about what has been included but the solicitor has not answered. I don't know whether I am misunderstanding the terminology, or if they haven't done what was agreed.
Firstly, I did not want the Trust to revert to the dc immediately on their turning 18. I wanted them to be a bit older, but with the proviso that if they needed the money before then for a deposit on property, it could be released for that. Basically, I wanted to limit the fact that the money might be blown on a new car/holiday at 18. The solicitor told me this was a common request and could be included in the document.
It has not been included (there is no mention of when the funds may be released) and when questioned, the solicitor says this is not the information included in a Trust and instead I need to set up a Letter of Wishes. However, they've said that the Trustees can decide to ignore this Letter, so I don't understand the point of it.
Secondly, I want my two dc to have equal shares. The trust document includes statements such as any illegitimate children, any further children, adopted children and legitimated children, and states that the Trustees decide the proportion of shares. I may want the money to go 50:50 to them, but the Trustee can ignore this? What is the clause about other children? My family is complete and increasingly the family is not on the cards.
After saying that I needed to appoint a Trustee (which I have done and the solicitors have their details included in the document), the document says there must be a minimum of two Trustees in order to approve dispensation of the funds. They didn't state this before, so does the document need to be amended to include further details of a second Trustee?
There are pages of information about what fees the Trustees can charge to administer the Trust.
The whole thing looks like they've just inserted the names into a general document without any consideration of my wishes and what was discussed between us at the meeting.
Does this sound like what you would expect to see in a life assurance Trust to be put in place to benefit children, or do I need to escalate my concerns?
Thanks for your help - I've tried googling to find out the standard information, but haven't been able to find something that might help.