Trust Roles in Will

[GreatPig]

When drawing up a will after you have a family trust, what trust roles should be (and for that matter can be) explicitly passed on in the will?

- Appointer? I would guess this would be the most important to pass on.

- Individual trustee? Or would the (possibly new) appointer just appoint another one?

- Director of trustee company? I assume this would just be appointed by the (possibly new) shareholder.

- Principal beneficiary? If you intended to leave everything to your spouse, who was already named as a principal beneficiary, would it be necessary to name anyone else at all (also considering both of you could die at the same time)? OTOH, if you're the only principal beneficiary, would you have to name someone else for the trust to remain legitimate?

And if these people are not explicity named, who takes over those roles upon the original person's death? I think I saw somewhere that the will executor would become the appointer, but would that also be the case if the will explicitly named a new appointer?

Thanks.

GP

 

[austini]

Hi GP,

Interesting issues you have raised. I'm also interested to see what others have to say.

I had read somewhere (Renton I think) that the Family Trust (and appointer issues) should be addressed in the will. However when we had a solicitor draw up our wills we were told that the Family Trust just forms part of the estate like any other related assets and hence there is no need to have any mention of the Family trust(s) in the will. However you should ensure that the executor is aware that the family trust exists. Solicitors usually have what's called a "Drop Dead" file which should contain and up-to-date list of the family's assets. I'm about to update our "Drop Dead" file to include a summary of our assets, important documents and their locations. Maybe I'm paying more attention to this because I drank too much last night and feeling like I have a foot in the grave today

I must admit I have never felt comfortable with this advice and have been meaning to get a second opinion on this issue.

Cheers - Gordon

 

[monoply]

I have Dales book, and am reading it at the moment.

I think the appointer is the main one, as they have all the power, and control everything.
Only they can change the trustee or directors.


So your will needs to state who the new appointer will be. Otherwise the executor becomes the appointer.

When making a will, you should inform the solicitor, if you are the appointer, , or director and shareholder of the trustee company.

If your wife died also, you would not need to name anyone else if they were beneficeries of the trust, because the trust can just distribute to any of them, although if you wanted to allacate set percentages, or specific items, I guess you would have to do that.

So, I guess the appointer is the key one, and they can appoint new directors, and just leave the trust running and distributing, or they can wind it up as per your instructions?

cheers

 

[willair]

Great Pig,
i was just thinking,if a person has induring power of attorney
over the complete estate,and the title is registered under the
Land titles act in the executor name,then does he or she
have total control over everything.
good luck
willair..

 

[Terry_w]

Wow virtually everything written in this thread is incorrect.

If the person behind the trust dies the assets of the trust do not form part of that person's estate. The trust keeps going and someone else will take over control. This is determined by the rules of the trust as recorded in the deed. What you write in your will has no effect. However, in some trust deeds the role of appointor can pass via the will and/or the executor of your will becomes the next appointor - not a good idea for obvious reasons.

Also consider how you pass on control of trustee companies - if you own the shares these will pass via your will/intestacy laws.