WAY Trustees are Professional Trustees

WAY Trustees Limited offer a professional trustee service that currently has one single focus: the establishment and management of managing family wealth for people wishing to protect their assets from dynamic family changes in the future. WAY Trustees can help to protect your wealth and pass it on, making sure the people who matter to you benefit.

There are many circumstances where WAY Trustees can help protect or utilise family assets to achieve excellent safeguarding for intergenerational family wealth. Life events such as weddings, a first house purchase, school or university fees, even family emergencies and care fees, you’ll find that a trust provided and managed by WAY Trustees will provide financial security for not only the settlor, but for their family’s future generations (up to 125 years)! WAY Trustees ensure that a totally unbiased approach is taken when dealing with the deceased’s assets and that the Settlor’s wishes are completely upheld.

Why it pays to use a professional trustee:

Since the Trustee Act 2000 became law, the role of a trustee has become much more complex. It’s no longer enough just to be a trustworthy individual. It means understanding how to interpret the terms of the trust, how the trust works and the implications of any action – or inaction. As legal owners, it’s the trustee’s job to administer the trust in the best interest of the beneficiaries, all the while keeping in mind the wishes of the settlor. Other very good reasons to use WAY Trustees as your professional trustee are:

1. We do all the paperwork. We deal with reversion payments, income distributions if needed and the payment of trust expenses. We prepare annual accounts, meet all tax reporting requirements and pay any tax due. In addition, any investments held in the trust must be reviewed regularly to make sure they remain suitable. The trustee also has a duty to consider the tax implications of their decisions for the trust, the settler and the beneficiaries.

2. We’re impartial. We have no family connections that can complicate decision-making. Whilst the settlor can make their wishes known to the trustee, it’s the trustee’s role to decide what’s best for the beneficiaries. So the trustee cannot be swayed by family loyalties and treads a diplomatic line between settlor and the trust  beneficiaries.

3. Professional trustees don’t die. Trustees who die or become too ill to manage the paperwork leave the settlor exposed to unnecessary tax. Using a professional trustee service provides continuity of service for the full life of the Plan, securing your legacy for future generations of your family.

So in summary, the trustee should be an expert in the law, an investment adviser and a tax specialist – quite a list of requirements! And they still need to devote their time to making sure they’re acting properly on behalf of the settlor’s wishes and the beneficiaries.

Part of the long established and well-respected WAY Group Limited, WAY Trustees has been responsible for setting up and managing some 1500 individual trusts containing assets of almost £200 million, saving clients many millions of pounds in potential Inheritance Tax (IHT) liabilities.