LEGAL CORNER
Click here to accept the terms and conditions By Owen Hill, Consultant Solicitor In modern times we are conditioned
in our use of the internet to book flights, buy our groceries and get just about anything we want. All we have to do is remember the 16 digit number on
our card and tick the box that says we have read and accept the terms and conditions. Yeah, right. I could probably understand the smallprint if I had ever
bothered to read the terms for iTunes or Ryanair or any other household name – but life is too short and it probably would not make a difference to the decision to purchase. Is ignorance really bliss? Well – as a consumer – there is so much regulation of
trade to ensure that big businesses cannot take money from a consumer and fail to deliver, that we can all be regarded as pretty safe when dealing with household names and trusted suppliers. The way of the modern world is such that if it does go badly wrong then there is normally some form of protection that will ensure that the innocent consumer does not suffer. so the consumer is pretty well cared for. But there is very little protection for sole traders and small businesses when
entering into contracts with big businesses. The bigger the business, the more likely that it will insist on using special terms and conditions - usually drafted by a lawyer to extract maximum advantage for the client. I used to produce various forms of terms and conditions for different types of business in a former life when I was a legal director in industry. It used to be the case that the small print would be read and considered as part of every deal and sometimes changed for specific purposes. These days, terms and conditions seem to ping back and
forth as unopened attachments to emails or are simply left on display in a dark corner of a website. Most commercial disputes start with a preliminary issue which is whether the written terms of one party or the other actually apply to the deal that was done and it is often the case that neither do – leaving both parties in a world where the contract for their deal has no small print at all Finally – if you have ‘borrowed’ your terms of business
from someone – please bear in mind that they probably did the same and the original probably was not intended for your type of trade so will work as well as petrol in a diesel car. You won’t know until you need it to work!
Put your Trust in a Trust
By Marinella Hollies, Associate Solicitor Many clients who come to me to
make or update their wills often have beneficiaries under the age of 18 whom they would want to benefit from their assets after they have died. The temptation is to keep the
will as simple as possible and leave the inheritance to the beneficiaries at a fixed age such as 18, 21 or later. While this is unlikely to cause any problems with a modest legacy, it could cause various practical problems if the amounts involved are more substantial. so what are the alternatives? An inheritance that is subject to an age restriction will pass
outright to the beneficiary as soon as he or she reaches the age in question. From that point onwards, no one will have control over the money other then the beneficiary, so a young beneficiary or one who may be influenced by others could waste the money rather than look after it. A beneficiary may run into financial difficulty and if he
or she became bankrupt then their inheritance could be lost. similarly, if a beneficiary marries or enters into a civil partnership and then that relationship breaks down, the inheritance will not automatically be protected and could well be taken into consideration as part of any financial agreement or court order. If the beneficiary dies, any inheritance could have an adverse impact on the beneficiary’s inheritance tax position and thereby increase the tax that falls due on his or her death. One solution to these many issues is to consider creating
a trust in the will to receive the inheritance rather than the inheritance passing directly to the beneficiary. A trust arrangement has a number of advantages: • Control of the funds remains with the trustees
irrespective of the age of the beneficiary. • The trustees have wide discretionary powers to use the
trust fund for the beneficiary; eg. to pay education fees or provide a deposit to buy a property, etc. You can modify these powers if you wish but advice should always be taken. • The trust fund is protected if the beneficiary goes bankrupt or divorces. • The trustees have the power to loan or advance funds
from the trust to the beneficiary and this power could be used to bring the trust to an end by advancing all the money if appropriate. If you have a number of potential beneficiaries, separate
trusts could be created so that each beneficiary’s inheritance is held separately, this can often have long-term inheritance tax advantages for the trusts. You might want to think about creating a trust in your lifetime and pay funds into it to be used for one or more minor beneficiaries. Where funds are paid in by the parents of the children concerned for their education, this can often be a useful way of ring-fencing the funds for inheritance tax purposes for a period of time should the parents die. Trusts can be a very useful device both to retain control
over assets even after death and to try to minimise exposure to inheritance tax for the beneficiaries, and are well worth considering as part of any review of a will.
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