Child's inheritance/ Child's Bank Account (In Trust)

[andrew49]

Hi, I'm trying to help a friend.
Child is three years old, mother was common law wife of the child's father.
Father has been killed in a work related accident. The employer has made a payment (from Avia) through a solicitor engaged by the mother. The child is the beneficiary of the very small estate.
The solicitor will only pay the monies into a the Child's account which has to be a trust account with two signatories and flatly refuses to pay into a simple Child's account.
We have been unable to find an High Street bank that offers such an account.
The solicitor is pushing the mother to go to a company that specialises in Trust accounts but this would be a big hit on the very small amount of money involved, less than £20K.
1) Does she have to have a trust account?
2) If yes, where can we setup such account ourselves to save taking a kit on the funds?

Would be great if someone could help.

BR
Andrew

[des8]

Re: Child's inheritance/ Child's Bank Account (In Trust)

Hi and welcome

I would agree that the money should be paid into a trust fund for the child.

Setting up a trust is not something I would recommend for a lay person to do, without substantial input from a solicitor as the wording needs to be exact.
On the other hand I would be wary of going to a company as they are likely to nominate themselves as a trustee.
Trustees can charge and that becomes a constant drain on the fund(so beware the company!)

So my advice would be to seek out a solicitor who is au fait with trusts.
Find a couple of relatives you can trust to act as trustees (perhaps Mum lol)
Get the trust set up at a one of cost to solicitor

some reading here https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.u...ing-up-a-trust
and here http://www.investopedia.com/articles...st-fund-uk.asp