Trusts in Wills: What They Are and When They Actually Help

The word "trust" makes most people picture offshore accounts and tax lawyers. In the context of a will, a trust is something much more ordinary: an arrangement where someone you choose (the trustees) holds money or property for the benefit of someone else (the beneficiaries), on terms you set. Most will trusts exist to solve everyday family problems, not to dodge tax.

How a trust in a will works

Instead of leaving assets to a person outright, your will leaves them to trustees — usually the same people as your executors — with instructions. Those instructions might say "hold this for my children until they are 25", or "let my husband live in the house for life, then pass it to my daughters". The trust only comes into existence when you die, costs nothing while you are alive, and is written into the will itself.

The three will trusts ordinary families actually use

• Bereaved minors / age-contingent trusts. If you leave money to children, someone has to hold it until they are old enough. A will can simply delay inheritance to 18, 21 or 25, with trustees able to release money earlier for education or maintenance. Almost every will made by parents contains a version of this, whether they call it a trust or not.
• Life interest trusts. The classic second-marriage and blended-family tool. Your surviving partner gets the right to live in the property (or receive income from investments) for life, but the underlying capital is preserved for your children. It protects the survivor without disinheriting the kids — the risk we covered in our mirror wills guide.
• Discretionary trusts. Trustees decide who among a group of beneficiaries gets what, and when. Useful where a beneficiary is vulnerable, disabled (a specialist disabled person's trust can be more tax-efficient), bankrupt, in a shaky marriage, or simply bad with money — the inheritance is available for them without ever being legally theirs to lose.

What trusts cost and who runs them

Adding a straightforward trust to a professionally drafted will typically adds a modest amount to the drafting cost — often £100–£300 more than a simple will (see our will costs guide). The real cost is ongoing: trustees may need to register the trust with HMRC's Trust Registration Service, file tax returns for trusts that generate income, and take occasional professional advice. For a life interest in the family home, ongoing costs are usually minimal; for a large discretionary fund, budget for some professional help.

Trusts and inheritance tax — a reality check

Will trusts are mostly about control and protection, not tax avoidance. Assets in most trusts still count for inheritance tax, and discretionary trusts have their own tax regime, including periodic charges. There are situations where trust structures interact usefully with the rules — particularly around protecting the residence nil-rate band in blended families — but that is exactly the territory where you should be paying for advice rather than copying a structure from the internet. Our inheritance tax guide covers the underlying thresholds.

Do you need one?

Ask three questions. Is there anyone who should not receive their inheritance outright — because of age, vulnerability, or circumstances? Is there a person you want to provide for during their life without permanently diverting assets from someone else? Is your family structure anything other than "first marriage, shared children"? A yes to any of these is the signal to discuss a trust when you make your will; a no to all three usually means a simple will does the job better. Either way, our guide on when a solicitor is worth it applies double here — trusts are the one part of will drafting where DIY reliably goes wrong.

This is general information about the law in England and Wales, not personalised legal advice. Rules, thresholds and processes change, and Scotland and Northern Ireland have different rules in places — for anything that depends on your own circumstances, it is worth speaking to a solicitor (ideally one accredited by STEP or Solicitors for the Elderly) or checking GOV.UK and Citizens Advice for current detail.