What is a Flexible Life Interest Trust Will?
Your whole estate or a portion of your estate/specified asset would be transferred into the names of your trustees on your death.
Trustees are responsible for managing your estate and legally holding the funds in line with the terms of the Will. It is sensible to appoint independent trustees to manage the trust funds to avoid any conflict of interest and we would usually recommend that you appoint two. However, in many cases the trustees and beneficiaries are the same people.
The fund would be held by your trustees, and they would be required to pay the income from the assets held in trust to the life tenant for their lifetime. The income could be directly mandated to them. This may be income from investments or rental properties.
The life tenant also has the ability to ask the trustees for capital which can be advanced to them at the trustee’s discretion. This may be because the life tenant is struggling financially.
Following the death of the life tenant, the trust can either come to an end, or continue on in a discretionary trust arrangement.
The benefit of the life tenant not being automatically entitled to capital means that the capital is protected for default beneficiaries and from third party claims. However, the ability to ask for capital gives maximum flexibility to the life tenant and trustees.