Trusts
Every trust you can build into an InLeef will - what each one does, who it suits, and how many of each you can add.
This guide explains every trust you can build into a will, what each one does, who it suits, and how many of each you can add. Each trust has its own page with the exact settings you'll see on the form. For the general law behind them, see Understanding trusts.
The trust pages
- Discretionary Trust of Residue - trustees decide who takes the residue, when, and how much.- Interest in Possession (IIP) - the surviving spouse takes the income for life, then the trust passes on.
- Flexible Life Interest Trust (FLIT) - a life interest plus wide powers for the trustees, common in blended families.- First-Death Capped Trust - ringfences a fixed tax-free sum into a trust before the rest of the estate passes on.
- Business Property Relief Trust - ringfences business assets to make the most of Business Property Relief.
- Agricultural Property Relief Trust - ringfences farmland to make the most of Agricultural Property Relief.
- Disabled Person's Trust - provides for a disabled person while protecting their means-tested benefits.
The will itself (executors, guardians, gifts, residue, wishes and so on) and the other documents (LPAs, Severance of Joint Tenancy) are covered in the documents guide.
Jurisdiction. These are England & Wales wills. Northern Ireland wills work exactly the same way - only the legal wording and statute references change.
1. Where trusts sit in a will
Trusts sit in one of a few places in a will, and where a trust sits decides how many you can have and how it behaves.
| Where it sits | What it is | How many |
|---|---|---|
| Main trust (single will) | The one trust that governs the whole residue of a single person's will. | At most one |
| First-death trust (mirror wills) | On a couple's mirror wills, the trust that applies when the first of them dies. | At most one |
| Second-death trust (mirror wills) | On mirror wills, the trust that applies to the survivor's estate on the second death. Always a Discretionary Trust. | At most one |
| Carve-out (any will) | A First-Death Capped Trust that takes a fixed tax-free sum off the top before the rest of the estate passes on. | Any number |
| Addition (any will) | An asset- or person-specific trust (Business Relief, Agricultural Relief, Disabled Person's) that sits alongside the main gift. | Any number |
The main / first-death / second-death slots each hold one trust only. Carve-outs and additions can be added as many times as you need.
2. How many of each - at a glance
| Trust | Single will | Mirror wills |
|---|---|---|
| Discretionary Trust of Residue | 0 or 1 (as the main trust) | 0 or 1 (as the second-death trust) |
| Flexible Life Interest Trust (FLIT) | 0 or 1 (as the main trust) | 0 or 1 (as the first-death trust) |
| Business Property Relief Trust | any number | any number (each set to one spouse or both) |
| Agricultural Property Relief Trust | any number | any number (each set to one spouse or both) |
| Disabled Person's Trust | any number | any number (each set to one spouse or both) |
On mirror wills the same addition can appear more than once - for example a Business Relief trust for one spouse and another for the other spouse.
A note on single wills with a life interest. A single person's will has no surviving spouse to be the life tenant, so if you use an Interest in Possession or FLIT as the main trust you'll be asked to name the person who benefits during the trust (the life tenant) yourself.
A note on mirror wills with no first-death trust. This is the classic setup: on the first death everything passes to the surviving spouse outright, keeping both tax-free bands intact, and the named beneficiaries only take on the second death.
3. Trustees and beneficiaries - the settings every trust shares
Choosing trustees
Every trust needs trustees, chosen from the people (and any trust corporation) on the order.
- You must name between two and four trustees (the legal minimum and maximum), and you can name up to four reserves who step in if a first choice can't act.
- By default a trust is run by the will's default trustees (set once for the whole will). Each trust has an option to use its own trustees instead.
- The life-interest trusts (IIP, FLIT, Property Life Interest) give you a three-way choice instead of a simple on/off, because the surviving spouse is usually the life tenant and is often also a default trustee:
- Use the will's default trustees, or
- Name this trust's own trustees (the same set in both mirror wills), or
- Name different trustees in each will (so you can, for example, keep the surviving spouse out of running their own life-interest trust).
- On mirror wills, if you've chosen different trustees for each will, any trust that names its own trustees will also ask you for the second spouse's set.
Choosing beneficiaries
Every trust has a beneficiaries list. For each beneficiary you choose:
- Who - a person or charity, a group (for example "my children"), or a people-group defined inside the will.
- Per stirpes (on by default) - the "in equal shares per stirpes" division.
- Pass to their issue (on by default, and hidden for charities) - if that beneficiary dies first, their share passes down to their children.
- Share (%) - optional. Leave it blank and that beneficiary takes an equal split of whatever is left after any explicit shares. The form makes sure the total reaches 100%.
Important - trust splits go in the Letter of Wishes. For the life-interest trusts and the discretionary trusts, the will always divides the trust in equal shares; any specific percentage split you want is recorded in the Letter of Wishes, not fixed in the will itself. A plain outright residue (no trust) does fix the percentage split in the will.
4. Adding trusts on the order
You build a will by adding product lines to an order, then filling in the form for each.
- Add a will (single or mirror) as the base document.
- Add the trusts you want. A trust attaches to the will on the order - on mirror wills you set each trust to apply to one spouse or both; on single wills it simply attaches to that will.
- You can add as order lines: Discretionary Trust of Residue, First-Death Capped Trust, Interest in Possession, FLIT, and the Business Relief / Agricultural Relief / Disabled Person's additions.
- Not orderable as their own line: a children-only discretionary trust and a single-property life interest aren't in the product catalogue. For children-only, set a Discretionary Trust's beneficiaries to your children and issue; for a single-property life interest, use an IIP with a home to occupy, or a FLIT.
- The Spouse Absolute outcome isn't a line you add at all - it's simply what happens on a mirror will when you don't add a first-death trust.
Adding the same will twice on one order still produces one will. LPAs and Severance forms each draft as their own separate document.
For the steps, see Create an order and quote and Draft, review and send documents.
5. What appears in the finished will, and in what order
Within each will the clauses come out in this order (trust-relevant parts shown):
- The opening clauses (revocation, executors, trustees, guardians, funeral wishes).
- Gifts and the gift of personal chattels.
- Any First-Death Capped Trust carve-outs (these take their fixed sum before the residue).
- The residue - passing to the main trust (single will) or, on mirror wills, to the surviving spouse / first-death trust.
- On mirror wills, the second-death gifts and the second-death trust.
- Any additions (Business Relief, Agricultural Relief, Disabled Person's).
- The closing clauses (long-stop, excluded persons, further provisions, definitions, signing).
Carve-outs render before the residue; additions render after it.
6. Things the form checks for you
The form won't let a will through if:
- The same property or business is given away twice (for example promised to a trust and also given as an outright gift).
- A single-will life-interest trust has no life tenant named.
- A minor is named as a beneficiary anywhere but no guardian has been appointed.
- A will is marked as made in contemplation of marriage but no intended spouse is named.
- Mirror wills use different executors or trustees per will but a set hasn't been completed for the second spouse.