Overview

A ‘resettlement’ refers to a transfer of trust assets from one trust to another. The trustees of each trust may be the same or different, and the legal ownership may not change. A new trust will be declared over the trust property using the trustees existing powers and the terms of the trust or beneficiaries will be different.

Any resettlement should be documented by a deed, and this should be drafted by a lawyer or other person authorised to do so under the Legal Services Act 2007. See the Reserved legal services guidance note for further details.

This guidance note is for accountants and tax advisers and provides an outline of the issues that they will need to consider and look out for. It is not targeted at lawyers.

This guidance note deals with the position in England and Wales only. See Simon’s Taxes I5.8 for details of the provisions affecting Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Trustees powers to resettle

Trustees will often have discretionary powers of appointment and advancement that are wide