Primrose Hill wrote:Trusts these days have quite a high set up cost. Best thing is transferring out and live for the next 7years. In terms of
property, if parents transferred it to you, your parents have to pay you rent .
Yes agreed.
I'd seek out an IFA. Their job would be to study the situation and suggest a range of options. Then you (and your savvier offspring) can go away and study the options and consider further. You should only be paying a fixed fee for their advice, and nothing commission based, or ongoing fee generating.
If the assets are substantial enough this might merit the use of offshore trusts and so on. A good IFA will have the contacts with a solicitor to facilitate this. I.e. the IFA should be like a financial GP who can make a cross-referral to any specialist that might be required.
The first step is finding an IFA that matches the task, i.e. someone geared to the client and their position: There's no point sending them to an IFA who is a mortgage and school fees specialist. I recently went through this with my own parents. Step one was... 'Do any of your friends (ie, similarly positioned people) have an IFA, with whom they have an established and satisfactory relationship with'?
It's better if it's someone local, so old folks can go and meet them, and sit down over a cup of tea and discuss matters. Certainly my folks don't like discussing money at all, so having a foundation of 'referral' and hence trust is important... as reaching the desired outcome necessitates a, frankly, pretty blunt and forensic analysis of the precise circumstances, including matters they might not have even considered (income, outgoings, proposed bequests, ongoing care expectations etc).
As I commented to my sister: 'This is my recommendation, and it is what is required. They will
hate the ['intrusive/interrogatory'] process, but must remember that it is required in order for the best solutions to be arrived at'.
