Gift and Loan Trust
Inheritance tax planning with access to your money
With this trust, you loan the trustees a lump sum, on an interest-free basis. As it’s a loan to the trust, you’ll get unlimited access to the outstanding loan, taking regular or ad hoc payments. The outstanding loan stays inside your estate so is in scope for inheritance tax. However, you won’t need to pay inheritance tax on any investment growth.
How the trust works
A trust is a way of managing assets (such as money or investments). It’s a legal arrangement where someone (the settlor) puts assets into a trust and appoints a person or group of people (the trustees) to look after them, for the benefit of a group of people (the beneficiaries). There are various types of trusts, with different features and benefits.
Our Gift and Loan Trust
Set up the trust with a £10 gift and lend a sum of money to the trustees on an interest-free basis. The trustees will then use this lump sum to take out one of our investment bonds.
Once the trust is fully set up, you can have regular or ad hoc withdrawals from the lump sum you’ve loaned to the trust. However, you can’t benefit from any investment growth made within the bond.
Accessing your money
With a gift and loan trust, you can have access to your outstanding loan at any time. This means you can ask the trustees to withdraw money from the investment bond as loan repayments. You won't be able to benefit from any investment growth.
A bare or discretionary trust?
This trust can be set up as either a bare or discretionary trust.
Bare Gift and Loan Trust
With a bare trust you can’t change the beneficiaries, so you’ll need to be certain about who you choose. Once you’ve received your loan amount back in full, the trustees will manage the remaining investment until the beneficiary is 18 years old. The trustees must then distribute the trust fund to the beneficiaries.
Discretionary Gift and Loan Trust
With this option, once you’ve received your loan amount back in full, the trustees can manage the trust at their discretion. This means they can make decisions such as who’ll benefit from the trust, how much money they’ll get and when.
Products that can be used with this trust
You can use the following investment bonds with our Gift and Loan Trust. Click on the links to find out more.
Tax
Income Tax
You might need to pay income tax on any money withdrawn from an investment bond in a gift and loan trust. The person who needs to pay the income tax will change, depending on whether the trust is set up as a bare or discretionary trust.
Inheritance Tax
The outstanding loan always stays in your estate, which means it’s in scope for inheritance tax.
Tax rules depend on individual circumstances and may change. Speak to an adviser, if you need more information on tax.
What are the risks?
The value of your investment can go down as well as up and you may get back less than you invest. Tax rules depend on the type of investment and individual circumstances and may change.