Effective and expert guidance

Estate planning is all about ensuring that family wealth passes into the right hands at the right time, with minimum liability to inheritance tax.

Your clients demand not just effective estate planning solutions – they also want expert guidance, and the sort of support that helps them make the right decisions.

Plans we provide

  • Discounted Gift Plan

    This plan is designed for clients who want to reduce the value of their estate and potential inheritance tax but still receive fixed withdrawals from these assets.

    Find out more

  • Gift Plan

    Our Gift Plan can help your clients reduce their inheritance tax liability by making a gift – and give more flexibility and faster payments to beneficiaries.

    Find out more

  • Loan Plan

    This simple plan is easy to set up and operate – and it can help your clients reduce their inheritance tax liability without giving up access to their assets.

    Find out more

Trusts we provide

Our trusts have different features, with their own unique combination of flexibility, capital access and tax implications.

You can use our decision tree guide to support your discussions with clients and help you agree which trust is best for them.

  • Discretionary Trust

    Your client indicates who they would like to benefit from the plan – but the trustees have the final choice.

  • Absolute Trust

    Your client specifies the beneficiaries when the plan is set up and these beneficiaries can’t be changed by the trustees.

  • Flexible Trust

    Your client specifies the beneficiaries that have a right to income – but the trustees can change the beneficiaries at any time.

Bypass Trust

A Bypass Trust is a simple way to pay lump sum death benefits from a Self Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) into a trust rather than to an individual.

This trust can give your clients flexibility, asset protection and potential inheritance tax benefits.

Your client will need to complete the following documents to set up a bypass trust:

Bypass Trust

Instruction for payment of death benefits

 

Support we provide


Client support

We have a range of documents, guides and materials that can support discussions with your clients.

Trust decision tree Trust decision tree

Take your clients through the trust decision tree to help decide which plan and trust works best for them.

View guide

Help your loved ones Help your loved ones

Get more detail on the estate planning options available and read case studies to bring the solutions to life for your clients.

View guide

Gift record Gift record

Your clients can get more detail on the estate planning solutions available from this guide. It also has case studies to bring the solutions to life.

View document

Trustee investing support

Trustees will have responsibility for making decisions – and there are rules covering the actions of trustees in relation to how assets are invested.

It’s not unusual for a family member or the person who created the trust to act as a trustee. But few family members will have the knowledge and experience to carry out their duties without support from an adviser.

With our support, you can take a structured approach to help them with a number of topics including:

  • Investment strategy: this will be driven by the goals of the trust
  • Asset allocation: the long-term nature of many trusts will impact on the asset classes selected
  • Tax wrappers: opportunities to manage the tax liabilities of the trust are always important
  • Monitoring and reporting: trustees need to be able to evidence their decision making and review processes

A framework for trustee discussions

It's important for trustees to be able to show that they’ve followed a well documented and robust investment process.

You can use these supporting documents as a framework for your discussions with trustees.

 

Trustee meeting guide Trustee meeting guide

Talk trustees through the investment advice process with this helpful guide.

View guide

Illustration of document Trust Fact Find form

This records basic essential information about a trust client.

View form

Document icon Investment policy statement

This records all of the key aspects of a trust’s approach to investing assets.

View guide


Deed support

We can provide deeds for a number of our life plans and legacy products, including:

  • Endowments
  • Homeplan
  • Whole of Life Assurance
  • Term Assurance
  • Lifetime Protection Plans/Series
  • Variable Protection Plan
  • Variable Investment Bonds/Versatile Investment Plans

This is not an exclusive list. Please contact us at legal_operations@standardlife.com or call 0345 606 0841 for more information. Call charges will vary.

Money invested is at risk. Tax may change in the future.

This website is for financial advisers only and must not be relied on by anyone else. If you’re not an adviser, please go to our customer website for more information about our products and services.