Quote Originally Posted by IanD View Post
It was too late to go down the Trust route. I did consider it (after a conversation with a fellow Bluebird in the Canton!). No way mum would change her will. Trusts are very much long term and, as you say, take control away from the eventual beneficiaries. I'm sure I read somewhere that a Trust, set up shortly before someone dies, could be seen as tax evasion by HMRC. Plus the issue of what happens to the Trust assets if the beneficiaries pre-decease the surviving parent. Tricky.
The answer is it depends on the trust and what its intended purpose was for.

Trusts can be set up legitimately, then settlors die of natural causes. HMRC wouldn't automatically assume the purpose of the trust was to avoid tax if the death of the settlor was not a predictable event at settlement.

Setting up a trust on your deathbed would see HMRC ignore the trust.

However for the purpose of this thread s102 Care Act 2014 is relevant, and places the cost burden on the life tenant of the trust.

Apropos of your final point, most trusts have provisions for either new beneficiaries or the termination of the trust and who are absolutely entitled to the assets.