04/04/24
Trusts are a vital tool for effective, modern estate planning. They provide will writers and estate planners with a broad range of options for ringfencing assets, protecting beneficiaries’ interests, and mitigating IHT liabilities.
By using trusts, you can offer clients flexible solutions to distributing large estates and managing complex family dynamics, ensuring your services continue to meet the specific needs of your customers.
Useful as they are for planning purposes and solving client problems, trusts can be one of the most complex areas of comprehensive and effective estate planning – especially if they’re not your area of expertise.
Although you maybe be familiar with the function of a particular trust, the administrative aspects and the management of it aren’t always easy to understand – for you or your client.
This is where partnering with a Trust Corporation can help.
The role of Trust Corporations
Trust Corporations, such as Countrywide Tax & Trust Corporation, provide professional legal, probate, executor, and trustee services to clients. They can oversee trust management and the transfer of assets as well as acting as custodians for the assets placed in trust.
As a will writer or estate planner, you can benefit from the knowledge and expertise of Countrywide’s trust experts through CTT Group, a multidisciplinary support network for professional advisors.
CTT Group’s Professional Support
By becoming a CTT member, you gain access to a full complement of professional advisor support, including:
- 5-star rated* legal expertise from our SRA regulated law firm partner, CTT Law Ltd.
- In-house accountancy expertise from FCA regulated CTT Accountancy.
- Independent financial advice from Countrywide Estate Planning IFA, which also operates under FCA regulation.
- Bespoke private client and tax advice from our in-house Private Client team.
- 100’s of years of collective specialist professional experience.
- Innovative, cutting-edge software that empowers you to offer more to your clients.
*Review Solicitors – the UK’s leading independent client led review platform
In addition to all of this, your clients benefit from comprehensive trust advice, trust management and support from Countrywide through set up, registration and management of the trusts, leaving you to focus on what you do best.
How CTT Group and Countrywide Tax & Trust can help will writers
Countrywide Tax & Trust is one of the few Trust Corporations in the UK. As such, CTT Group members have exclusive access to its professional trust advisory and support services.
CTT Group members can benefit from Countrywide’s trust services and expertise in the following ways:
Registering a client’s trust
It is now compulsory for most trusts in the UK to be registered with HMRC’s Trust Registration Service. This must be done within 90 days of the trust’s creation.
Although it’s possible for trustees to do this themselves on the government website – or for will writers and estate planners to register a trust on their client’s behalf – it’s a complicated and time-consuming process.
Online trust registration forms require a lot of personal data relating to the trust, its trustees, and its beneficiaries. Offering your clients the option for Countrywide’s professionals to complete their trust registration for them ensures all forms will be completed accurately and removes unnecessary admin for both you and your client.
Professional Trustee Services
If your clients are looking to appoint professional trustees to oversee the administration of their trusts, Countrywide can provide this service for them. Your clients will benefit from Countrywide’s in-depth knowledge of estate planning and impartial trust management, ensuring the trust continues to serve its beneficiaries in the best possible way.
Countrywide will also take care of the administrative responsibilities, such as making sure any tax due on the trust is paid in an accurate and timely way, and it remains compliant with current HMRC legislation.
Advice and support
CTT Group offers its members upwards of 12 different trusts that can be applied to their clients’ estates. The use and application of trusts in estate planning it just as important as the drafting of the trust itself to ensure its effectiveness, and there are hundreds if not thousands of options. Countrywide has curated a tailored and comprehensive list of options, including innovative trust arrangements first brought to market by Countrywide.
Countrywide offers CTT Group members expert advice on individual client cases, suggesting the best type of trust for their circumstances and the ways in which it can be used to serve the interests of the client and their beneficiaries.
For more information on how CTT Group and its partners can support your will writing and estate planning services, speak to a member of our Professional Services Partnership Team today.
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