How Trustees can protect an Estate after death.

An APT, Asset Protection Trust, provides very powerful protection for your Estate, and how it is distributed. A perfect and unusual example of this is where we, as Trustees, were able to stop an abusive son inheriting after his parents had passed away.

When our clients established the Trust their wishes were for their son and daughter to inherit equally. Over time the Settlor of the Trust, our client, was taken advantage of and abused by her son. Bravely she amended her Will and created a Memorandum of Wishes where she essentially accused her son of this.

After she passed away her son was then also arrested on suspicion of causing her death, although not convicted. Our role as Trustees for the APT, along with a new Memorandum of Wishes and amended Will, meant that we could now alter the distribution terms in the Trust. In this case the son ultimately ending up receiving nothing, while we protected our client’s estate as Trustees.