Family Protection Trusts: Amazing or Disastrous?
Our Trust and Executry Partner, Louise Arthur puts Family Protection Trusts under the spotlight.
Bang goes the Kids’ Inheritance!
You’ve worked hard all your life and now you’re enjoying a well earned retirement. Your pension income funds your modest lifestyle, with a little to spare for the occasional treat. And good news is that your mortgage is paid off. Your house is bought and paid for. It will be your kids’ inheritance when you go. But there may be a problem. Nursing home charges. If you need to go into care your house will probably have to be sold to pay your care costs. Bang goes the kids’ inheritance!
The Solution?
This is a prospect which had worried and angered pensioners for a long time. But then they were offered a solution. Put your house into a Family Protection Trust they were told. The house then belongs to the Trust – not you. It can’t be taken to pay for your care costs. So your kids’ inheritance is safe. The perfect solution? Many were persuaded that it was. Over the last decade, thousands upon thousands of homeowners have taken the plunge, a significant number of them using McClure, solicitors, to set up and administer their Family Protection Trusts.
McClure and after
Based in Greenock but operating throughout Scotland and beyond, McClure, solicitors vigorously promoted Family Protection Trusts and became far and away the market leaders in the provision of this product. But then, in April 2021, McClure went bust, leaving chaos in their wake, with thousands of family homes, now trust properties, in limbo.
Under the spotlight
McClure’s demise brought Family Protection Trusts under the spotlight:
What are Family Protection Trusts?
What are their benefits?
Can they cause more problems than they seek to solve?
What should you do if you have a Family Protection Trust set up by the now defunct McClure?
These are the questions I’ll attempt to answer for you in my blog Are you a victim of a Family Protection Trust?