What Is a Trust in a Will?

What a trust does

A trust is a legal arrangement where one person (the trustee) holds assets on behalf of another person or group of people (the beneficiaries). When created through a will, the trust comes into effect on the testator's death and the trustees take over management of the relevant assets.

Trusts are not just for large estates or complicated situations. They solve specific practical problems that a straightforward outright gift cannot.

Children's trusts

If you leave assets directly to a child under 18, the law requires those assets to be managed by trustees until the child is old enough to inherit. Without a trust clause in your will, a court may appoint trustees you would not have chosen.

Including a trust for minor children lets you name your own trustees, set the age at which children receive their inheritance outright (commonly 18, 21, or 25), and give trustees discretion to release funds for education, maintenance, or other needs in the meantime.

This is the most common type of trust in ordinary wills.

Life interest trusts

A life interest trust gives one person (usually a spouse) the right to use or receive income from assets during their lifetime, while preserving the underlying capital for a different set of beneficiaries (usually children from a previous relationship) after the life tenant dies.

This comes up most often in blended families. You want to make sure your surviving spouse is provided for, but you also want to ensure your children from a previous relationship inherit eventually, rather than having everything pass to a new partner your spouse might later marry.

Life interest trusts on property are common. They let a surviving spouse live in the family home for the rest of their life, with the property then passing to children on the spouse's death rather than to the spouse outright (and potentially away from the family entirely).

Discretionary trusts

A discretionary trust gives the trustees wide powers to decide who benefits, by how much, and when. The beneficiaries are defined as a class (for example, "my children and grandchildren") but no one has a fixed entitlement — it is entirely at the trustees' discretion.

Discretionary trusts are useful when the beneficiaries' circumstances are uncertain or when you want flexibility. They are also used for inheritance tax planning and for protecting assets for beneficiaries who are vulnerable or who have creditor problems.

They require more administration than simpler trusts and the choice of trustees is important: trustees of discretionary trusts have significant responsibilities.

A letter of wishes

If you set up a discretionary trust, a letter of wishes sitting alongside your will can guide the trustees without binding them legally. It might explain which beneficiaries to prioritise, under what circumstances to release capital, and any particular wishes you have for how the trust should be managed. Trustees are not obliged to follow it, but most do.

When to take advice

Trust law is a specialist area. PureWill's will form includes a basic trust clause for children's inheritances, which covers the most common need. For anything more — life interest trusts, discretionary trusts, property held in trust, blended family arrangements — a solicitor's involvement is genuinely worthwhile. The drafting needs to be precise and the choice of trustees carefully considered.