Can The Legal Wording Of A Will Delay Probate

[miltees]

The solicitor who drew up my father in laws will has described the estate as the trust fund and goes on to refer to the trustees holding the trust fund for my children. The trustees are the children. It has been suggested that using the term trust fund could complicate matters when probate is applied for and that it might be prudent to have the wording altered but this would incur more legal expense. Should we leave well alone or look to change it?

[Buenchico]

I doubt that it would cause any problems. Where children (under the age of 18) are beneficiaries of a will it's normal for the will to create a trust, simply by inserting the words 'Upon Trust until the age of eighteen years' and then going on to define who the trustees should be and the purposes to which they may apply the capital of, or income from, any such trust.

However, if you wanted to change the wording of the will, there's absolutely no reason why it should entail any legal costs; a simple codicil would suffice, revoking the relevant paragraph and inserting the required one, along the lines of my example here:
http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Law/Question1288540.html

[FredPuli43]

Can't see any problem with the solicitor's wording. After all ,the executors of a will are trustees of the estate of the deceased and thus the estate itself represents a fund held in trust.

What I don't follow is how the children are trustees for themselves, or anyone, if they are under age. If they are of age, are they also the executors ? If they are, of course they can be trustees of the estate and hold it for themselves as the beneficiaries and for any other beneficiaries under the Will.

Who suggested that the words 'could complicate' ? Was it someone who is a qualified barrister or solicitor ?

[Peter Pedant]

yeah I wondered who had given the advice

[factor-fiction]

miltees has answered you on a new thread, PP