iTrust Legacy
Lifetime Wealth Transfer and Inheritance Planning
Key Features of iTrust Legacy
iTrust Legacy is ideal for individuals and families who have built up savings, investments, or property and want to pass on as much as possible to the next generation. It’s perfect for those concerned about inheritance tax exposure and looking for a legally sound way to reduce their estate’s value over time.
Benefits
Flexible Gifting Options
Flexible gifting options – suitable cash, investments and other assets can be transferred into the trust over time. Where property equity is to be gifted, the planning may use a separately documented Fixed Value Financial Interest (FVFI), subject to valuation, Trustee acceptance and technical review.
Tax-Efficient Inheritance Planning
Where assets are genuinely and effectively transferred away from the Settlor, lifetime gifting can form part of inheritance-tax planning. The result depends on the value transferred, previous gifts, retained benefits, the type of asset and the tax rules applying at the time.
Legacy is normally a relevant-property trust. Inheritance Tax can therefore arise on some transfers into the trust, at ten-year anniversaries and when property leaves the trust, depending on values, allowances, reliefs and the circumstances at the time.
Lifetime gifting
Lifetime gifting starts the relevant inheritance-tax timetable when the gift is legally completed. Transfers into a discretionary trust are generally chargeable lifetime transfers. Depending on the amount gifted, previous transfers and available allowances, there may be no immediate lifetime IHT to pay; if the Settlor dies within seven years, a further calculation may arise.
Ongoing Family Support
Trustees can provide income or benefits for children, grandchildren, or others — supporting education, property deposits, or financial needs at key life stages.
Maximised Reliefs, Avoiding Mistakes
Planning is reviewed against the inheritance-tax allowances, exemptions and reliefs potentially available to you, with specialist tax advice obtained where appropriate.
Clarity & Reduced Disputes
By setting clear intentions through the trust, you create certainty, reduce ambiguity, and help prevent family disagreements.
Property-equity planning
Property-equity planning – where appropriate, Legacy can receive a separately constituted Fixed Value Financial Interest (FVFI), representing a defined fixed capital interest connected with a property. The FVFI is created under separate legal documentation and is subject to valuation, affordability and tax review.
Additional Features
Included with your trust at no extra cost
Secure Your Legacy Today
Supports family members across generations – Trustees can make discretionary payments, meet costs directly or use documented loans where appropriate, guided by the trust deed and your Letter of Wishes.
Your Letter of Wishes lets you give the Trustees clear guidance on your priorities and how you would like the trust to support your family, while the Trustees retain the legal discretion required by the trust.
Assets legally held by the Trustees can normally be administered under the trust without waiting for probate solely to establish the personal representatives’ title to those assets. Property and other assets retained personally may still require probate or estate administration.
Where the trust includes separate single-life protection policies for a couple, the drafting can, where appropriate, allow the surviving Settlor to be considered by the Trustees for all or part of the deceased Settlor’s identified policy death benefit. This is discretionary and policy-specific.
Keeping assets under Trustee control rather than giving them outright can provide an additional layer of protection where a beneficiary later faces financial, relationship or third-party difficulties. Outcomes depend on the circumstances and applicable law.
Getting Started
Speak with your iTrust Adviser or contact iTrust121 to explore your options and see how iTrust Legacy could help you pass on your wealth efficiently and securely.
Contact UsFrequently Asked Questions
What is iTrust Legacy?
iTrust Legacy is the principal long-term family wealth structure used where the objective is to preserve appropriate value for children, grandchildren and future generations.
Rather than requiring the entire estate to be distributed outright, trustees can retain and apply family wealth according to the circumstances existing at the time.
How long can my trust continue?
A properly drafted lifetime trust can continue after the death of the person or people who created it.
That allows the structure to support future generations rather than automatically ending at the first death.
The legal duration applying to your particular trust is set out in the trust deed.
Can beneficiaries demand money from the trust?
Not simply because they are discretionary beneficiaries.
They can ask the trustees to consider assisting them, but they do not normally have an automatic right to demand a particular sum.
Does that make it difficult for my family to benefit?
No.
The purpose of the structure is to allow the family to benefit.
The trustees simply have more choices about how that benefit is provided.
Depending upon the trust and circumstances, they might assist with:
buying a home;
education;
starting a business;
family needs;
loans;
income; or
capital distributions.
Why can this be better than leaving everything outright?
Once an inheritance is transferred outright, it becomes the beneficiary's personal property.
Keeping appropriate value within a discretionary family structure can provide greater flexibility if a beneficiary later experiences divorce, bankruptcy, financial pressure, vulnerability or simply needs help managing substantial wealth.
Important information
Important information: The benefits described are general illustrations of how the relevant iTrust may operate when appropriately structured and funded. Actual legal, tax and asset-protection outcomes depend on individual circumstances, the assets involved, the terms of the trust and any supplemental instruments, effective implementation and applicable law at the relevant time. Trustee decisions remain subject to the trust deed and their legal duties. Tax treatment and protection from third-party claims cannot be guaranteed and specialist advice may be required.
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