AEGON Scottish Equitable extends trust range

AEGON Scottish Equitable has extended its trust range with the launch of the Bare Discounted Gift Trust. This new trust enables the investor to make a gift that will be exempt from IHT after 7 years, whilst also keeping access to the trust via predetermined regular withdrawals from the underlying bond.

The new trust means AEGON Scottish Equitable now offers six trusts in total. Others included within the range are the bare gift, discretionary gift, bare loan, discretionary loan and the discretionary discounted gift trust.

AEGON Scottish Equitable now offers a comprehensive range of trusts to cater for the majority of people who are looking to mitigate their inheritance tax liability. All six trusts are available with the companies' bond products, including onshore bond and the guaranteed Investment control product as well as AEGON Scottish Equitable International's Wealth Management Portfolio.

In addition to the launch of the bare discounted gift trust, AEGON Scottish Equitable has also produced a ‘trusts decision tree' to help in the planning process.

The decision tree asks the customer a number of different questions including how much control and flexibility they would like, if access to capital may be required in the future and if they need access to investment growth.

The new decision tree is for advisers to use with customers, however the company are currently developing a similar version for advisers to use online, allowing them to help the client choose a trust through a series of simple steps.

Margaret Jago, Technical Manager for AEGON Scottish Equitable said, "This new trust allows for greater flexibility and control for the customer to decide who benefits from their assets and when.

"With the number of trusts available in the market and the many differences between them, trust planning can be challenging for customers to understand, and the decision making process can be very confusing. With AEGON Scottish Equitable's ‘trust decision tree' both the adviser and their customers can carefully select the benefits they would like to receive from a trust plan and clearly make the correct decision which is in their best interests"

For more information on the trusts available or to receive a copy of the trust decision tree please contact your local Scottish Equitable branch.