Ep 332: Can you protect your house from the local authority?!

Find a Solicitor here: https://medicsmoney.co.uk/medical-solicitor/

Cyra hosts Trish Venables, a solicitor at Talbots Law, to explain asset protection as maximising assets preserved for descendants and shielding them from risks such as divorce, care home fees, and means-tested benefits rules. Trish describes discretionary trusts set up in life or via a will, where beneficiaries have no absolute entitlement, supported by private letters of wishes, helping reduce exposure in divorce and allowing disabled beneficiaries to receive support without losing benefits. She outlines practicalities, including trustee selection, Trust Registration Service registration, and inheritance tax (IHT) implications such as a 20% lifetime entry charge above the £325,000 threshold and the seven-year rule. She warns that putting a home into a lifetime trust while continuing to live there can be challenged as deprivation of assets and a gift with reservation; instead, a will-based life interest trust over a severed 50% share may ring-fence value from care assessments. They discuss gifting from surplus income, and Trish notes NHS defined benefit pensions likely face no immediate IHT change, unlike some defined contribution schemes, pending legislation.

00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro

01:03 What Asset Protection Means

02:23 Trusts for Divorce and Benefits

04:19 How Discretionary Trusts Work

05:45 Setting Up Trusts and IHT

08:23 Care Fees and Home Trust Pitfalls

10:46 Will Planning Life Interest Trusts

12:08 Surplus Income Gifting Strategy

14:16 NHS Pensions and IHT Changes

19:11 Costs and Choosing Trustees