If you have a life assurance policy and if not done so already, you should consider putting the plan into a Trust.
It could be argued that trusts are one of the most important financial planning tools at your fingertips.
If a policy is written in trust, it remains outside of your estate, which can help to mitigate a potential inheritance tax (IHT) charge on death.
But, perhaps more importantly in many cases, trusts can be useful in making sure the plan benefits are paid to the right people as quickly as possible, as it takes the policy out of the Probate equation.
Additionally, the rules of intestacy may also take effect if you die without a Will, meaning multiple surviving relatives could be eligible to receive the payout from a claim.
However, if the policy is written under trust, any benefit can be paid to the surviving trustees – and distributed to the named beneficiaries – as soon as the claim is settled.