Life Assurance Place In Trust

[rockyracoon]

My OH has just bought life insurance and wants to put it in trust. I will be a trustee and also the only beneficiary. If we both died together, what would happen to the money?

Ta

[bhg481]

If two people die together the older of the two is deemed to have died first to determine order of inheritance. You can put a survivorship clause in a will which states what is to happen if the people die within typically 30 days of each other.

[rockyracoon]

Thanks bhg. It's not really the will that I'm worried about, it's more the trust that I was concerned with as that is separate from the will, I believe.

[bhg481]

Yes, he can put a clause in your will which states what will happen to the trust if you die before him or if you fail to outlive him by say 30 days (might save some inheritance tax).
If he is older than you and you die together, he will be deemed as the first to die, so there is no problem.
His will should state what will happen to his estate if you die before him.
If he has no will and you die first it will be treated as an intestate death and the standard rules of intestacy will apply.

[rockyracoon]

Ah right. Thanks. We're rewriting our wills, shortly.

[bednobs]

may i just ask why it is in a trust? it seems unnecessarily complex to do it that way

[rockyracoon]

Because the money can be paid out immediately as it won't form part of my husbands estate. He earns way more than me, so I'd need access to cash very quickly if he popped off.

[rockyracoon]

Oh yeah. I believe it's not included for inheritance tax purposes

[bednobs]

life insurance does not usually form part of the estate anyway does it?

[rockyracoon]

I don’t know to be honest. We were just given the option to do it and thought we should.

[Barmaid]

When you write it into trust write into the document that if you die within 30 days it goes to his personal representatives or your children or the cats home or whoever. Is there any discretionary element to the proposed trust?

[rockyracoon]

Hi BM

It's just a bog standard online form that we're filling in. It just asks for trustees and beneficiaries. Mind you, we haven't got right to the end as I though about my question. I'll follow it through to the end to see if we can add what you suggest. Many thanks