Why Trust Management Works Best as a Team Effort

When someone becomes a trustee - particularly unexpectedly, through bereavement or family circumstances - they're suddenly responsible for significant legal, tax, and financial decisions. Often whilst grieving. Often with no prior experience. Often feeling overwhelmed by the weight of their responsibilities.

They need help. But more specifically, they need coordinated help across three very different professional areas: legal, tax, and financial.

The challenge is that these three areas of expertise traditionally exist in separate professional worlds. Solicitors operate within their regulatory framework.

Accountants within theirs. Financial planners within theirs. Each profession has clear boundaries - rightly so, as these boundaries protect clients.

But from the trustee's perspective, these boundaries can feel like barriers. They're managing one trust, trying to make decisions that simultaneously have legal, tax, and financial implications. Yet they're often coordinating three separate professional relationships with no natural point of integration.

What if there was a better way? Not a complicated system or formal partnership, but simply professionals communicating with each other to ensure trustees receive coordinated support rather than fragmented advice.

This is what I want to achieve going forward: making sure clients are looked after properly through genuine collaboration between solicitors, accountants, and financial planners. This article explores why that matters and how it could work in practice.

The Reality I See Every Day

Recently, a trustee came to me managing a bereaved young person's trust. When I reviewed the situation, I found excellent work from multiple professionals - but no coordination between them.

The legal structure was beautifully drafted by a capable solicitor. The trust deed was proper, compliant, and registered correctly. The solicitor had completed their work professionally once the estate was finalised.

An accountant was filing trust tax returns accurately and diligently. Everything was compliant, deadlines were met, and forms were correct.

A financial adviser had recommended investments. The products themselves were reasonable.

Yet the trustee sat across from me exhausted and frustrated. "I've had to research everything twice," she said. "The accountant thought it was a normal discretionary trust when it's actually a bereaved young person's trust. The investments are causing unnecessary tax bills and admin work. And nobody is talking to each other. I'm trying to coordinate three professionals whilst learning to be a trustee and dealing with grief."

This isn't about professional incompetence. Each person had fulfilled their own responsibilities. What was missing was the conversation between them - the coordination that would have identified these issues before they became problems.

The accountant didn't know certain facts about the beneficiary that might have changed the tax approach. The financial adviser didn't fully understand how the investment structure would interact with both the trust type and the beneficiary's benefits position. The solicitor had no reason to think other professionals weren't already involved in ongoing management.

Everyone did their job. But the client - the trustee who needed support - was left trying to join the dots herself.

That's the problem I want to solve. Not by criticising any profession, but by finding ways we can work together to serve clients better.

Three Essential Areas of Expertise

Modern trust management, particularly for discretionary trusts, vulnerable beneficiary trusts, and other trusts requiring active oversight, genuinely needs expertise across three distinct professional domains.

Solicitors provide the legal foundation. They draft trust deeds reflecting families' intentions whilst complying with trust law. They handle Trust Registration Service requirements. They advise on trustee duties, powers, and potential liability. They manage variations when circumstances change. They resolve disputes when they arise. Without a sound legal structure, nothing else works properly.

Accountants ensure tax compliance and identify planning opportunities. They prepare trust tax returns. They advise on elections that can dramatically reduce tax liability - like vulnerable person elections that can cut rates from 45% down to personal rates. They ensure HMRC obligations are met. They spot opportunities for tax-efficient structures within the existing legal framework.

Financial planners manage investments and ongoing financial strategy. They recommend appropriate investment structures for trusts. They consider beneficiaries' needs, particularly around benefits for vulnerable beneficiaries. They ensure investments align with both legal powers and tax efficiency. They provide ongoing portfolio management as circumstances change.

These aren't overlapping services - they're complementary. I have noticed that solicitors typically focus on tax planning related to end-of-life and succession planning, often tied to Wills or trusts,in comparison to financial advisers who would take a broader view of tax planning.

Each profession has clear regulatory boundaries, and rightly so. Solicitors cannot provide specific investment advice. Accountants can explain tax liability but cannot recommend investment products. Financial planners cannot draft legal documents or file trust tax returns.

But here's what matters to the trustee: these three areas aren't separate in practice. Legal structure determines what's possible financially. Tax treatment determines what's efficient. An investment strategy generates the income and gains that create tax liabilities. Everything connects.

When professionals work independently, trustees must somehow integrate three separate streams of advice themselves. When professionals communicate with each other, that integration happens at the professional level, where the expertise exists.

What Trustees Actually Face

Consider what trustees of actively managed trusts must navigate:

Legal responsibilities: Understanding their fiduciary duties. Managing Trust Registration Service compliance. Handling trustee changes. Implementing variations when needed. Exercising powers appropriately. Responding to beneficiary requests. Staying within legal boundaries whilst fulfilling their duties.

Tax obligations: Filing annual trust tax returns. Making and renewing tax elections by strict deadlines. Understanding how distributions affect tax positions. Managing capital gains planning. Considering inheritance tax implications. Navigating interaction with personal allowances.

Financial decisions: Developing an appropriate investment strategy for the trust's purpose. Managing cash and liquidity. Planning distributions that meet beneficiaries' needs. Understanding beneficiary’s benefits implications for vulnerable beneficiaries. Rebalancing portfolios. Reviewing performance and adapting to changing circumstances.

Each of these naturally sits within a different professional's expertise. But they're not independent activities - they constantly affect each other.

The investment strategy determines what income and gains arise, which directly affects tax planning. The tax structure influences which investments are most efficient. The legal powers determine what's even possible. Distribution decisions have simultaneous legal, tax, and financial implications.

For trustees, trying to navigate this alone is overwhelming. Trying to coordinate three professionals who don't communicate with each other is frustrating. Having three professionals who actually talk to each other? That's what I want to achieve.

Why Vulnerable Beneficiary Trusts Demand Coordination

This need for coordination becomes particularly acute with vulnerable beneficiary trusts. These trusts layer additional complexity across all three professional areas:

Benefits considerations are crucial but complex. Many vulnerable beneficiaries receive means-tested state benefits. Trust distributions can reduce these benefits pound-for-pound. Without coordination between all three professionals, it's entirely possible to make distributions that actually leave the beneficiary worse off financially.

The financial planner needs to understand benefits rules and how different types of distributions affect them. The accountant needs to know how distributions are treated for benefits purposes. The solicitor needs to ensure the trust deed allows the right distribution strategies.

Tax elections like vulnerable person elections can save thousands annually - reducing tax from 45% discretionary trust rates down to the beneficiary's personal rate. But these elections require annual renewal and strict deadline compliance.

Someone needs to ensure these elections are made, monitored, and renewed. Is that the accountant's role? The financial planner's? The solicitor's? In practice, it requires coordination between all three to ensure nothing falls through the gaps.

Investment approaches must balance the beneficiary's specific needs against tax efficiency and legal constraints. Perhaps the beneficiary needs regular income for ongoing support. Perhaps capital preservation is crucial for future care costs. Perhaps ethical considerations matter to the family.

These preferences must work within the trust's legal powers (what can the trustees actually do?) and tax framework (what structure is most efficient?). That requires conversation between professionals, not just sequential advice.

Regular reviews become essential as circumstances evolve. Care needs change. Benefits rules are amended. Tax regulations shift. Investment markets move. Family situations develop.

Reviews across all three professional domains - legal, tax, and financial - ensure the trust continues serving its purpose effectively. But again, that requires coordination, not just three separate annual reviews.

STEP (the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners) recognises this complexity in their professional development, bringing together expertise across legal, tax, and financial disciplines to address these interconnected challenges.

My Vision for How This Could Work

So what does effective collaboration actually look like? I believe it's simpler than it might sound.

Early consultation - When solicitors are setting up trusts, ideally they would ask whether the client has a financial planner and accountant, and facilitate introductions early. For will trusts, trustees could speak with a financial planner a few months before money is released from the estate, allowing time for proper planning before funds arrive.

The accountant's involvement would depend on complexity - sometimes trust tax returns aren't immediately needed, but an early consultation could identify potential issues before they become problems.

Clear communication - Not elaborate formal structures, but basic communication about significant developments. When the accountant identifies a tax planning opportunity, the financial planner knows it affects investment strategy. When the financial planner recommends a distribution, the accountant knows it affects tax. When legal variations are needed, both understand the implications.

This isn't about seeking permission or territorial concerns. It's about ensuring trustees receive advice that actually fits together rather than having to integrate it themselves.

Defined responsibilities with coordination points - Each professional would maintain their distinct role and regulatory boundaries. But at natural coordination points - annual reviews, significant distributions, beneficiary life changes, trustee succession - there would be communication between professionals to ensure nothing is missed.

Trustee as centre, not coordinator - Ideally, the trustee would be the centre of this professional support, but not the sole coordinator trying to relay information between professionals who don't speak directly. With appropriate consent and clear communication channels, professionals could coordinate their advice whilst keeping the trustee informed and involved.

When I think about that bereaved young person's trust, I'm now liaising with the solicitor, the accountant, and coordinating the investment strategy to finally make this work properly for the client. But imagine if that coordination had happened from the start. The trustee would have avoided months of stress, unnecessary costs, and the worry that she was failing in her duties.

That's what I want to achieve going forward - not because any professional did anything wrong, but because working together would serve clients better.

The Benefits for Everyone

This collaborative approach isn't just good for clients - it makes professional practice better too.

For solicitors, it means your excellent legal work sits within a framework of ongoing support for clients. You're not just creating documents and hoping clients will somehow manage. You're part of a team ensuring the legal structure you've created actually works in practice.

For accountants, it means your tax planning and compliance work aligns with both the legal structure and financial reality. You're not working with partial information or making assumptions about aspects outside your expertise. You can provide better advice when you understand the full picture.

For financial planners, it means investment recommendations work within proper legal and tax frameworks. You're not accidentally creating problems because you didn't understand a legal constraint or tax implication. Your advice achieves what it's meant to achieve.

For trustees, it means genuine support rather than fragmented advice. Confidence that they're fulfilling their duties properly. Peace of mind that professionals are working together to protect the beneficiary's interests.

For beneficiaries - particularly vulnerable beneficiaries whose wellbeing depends on trusts working effectively - it means the trust actually serves its purpose without unnecessary complications, costs, or stress.

As recent guidance from the Law Society emphasises, recognising when clients need complementary professional support "should be a hallmark of ethical best practice" and aligns with SRA Code of Conduct principles to "act in the best interests of each client."

Small Steps Forward

If you're reading this thinking "this sounds sensible but how do we actually make it happen?", I'd suggest starting small.

For solicitors, it might mean:

• Asking trust clients whether they have a financial planner and accountant

• Making introductions when setting up trusts, particularly complex or vulnerable beneficiary trusts

• Sharing relevant information (with proper consent) that might affect financial or tax planning

• Remaining available for questions even after initial setup is complete

For accountants, it might mean:

• Having initial consultations when new trusts are established, even if ongoing returns aren't immediately needed

• Asking whether financial planning is in place when preparing trust returns

• Flagging situations where coordination might benefit the trust

• Communicating with other professionals when identifying planning opportunities

For financial planners, it might mean:

• Checking that solicitors and accountants are engaged when taking on trust clients

• Communicating investment strategies and their tax implications

• Involving accountants before implementing significant changes

• Recognising when legal advice is needed and facilitating those conversations

None of this requires elaborate systems or formal partnerships. It requires recognising that trust management benefits from expertise across multiple professional domains and taking practical steps to coordinate that expertise.

An Invitation to Work Together

I've seen what happens when professionals work independently, even when each does excellent work within their own domain. The trustee I mentioned at the start is now getting the coordinated support she should have had from the beginning, but only after months of unnecessary stress and cost.

I want to do better going forward. Not by replacing the work solicitors and accountants do - I cannot and should not do that work. But by working alongside you to ensure trustees receive genuinely coordinated support.

If you're a solicitor setting up trusts, your legal expertise is the essential foundation. I'd welcome the opportunity to discuss how financial planning could complement your work for clients, particularly with discretionary trusts and vulnerable beneficiary trusts.

If you're an accountant handling trust tax matters, your expertise in navigating complex tax regulations is invaluable. I'd be interested in exploring how we might coordinate to ensure investment strategies align with tax efficiency.

If you're a trustee reading this and recognising your own experience in these descriptions, please know that you shouldn't have to coordinate multiple professionals alone. It's reasonable to expect the professionals supporting you to communicate with each other.

This isn't about creating complicated structures or formal arrangements. It's about recognising that we all serve clients better when we work together than when we work in isolation.

That's worth having a conversation about.

I specialise in financial planning for will trusts, particularly those with vulnerable beneficiaries. If you're a solicitor or accountant interested in exploring how we might collaborate to provide better outcomes for trustees and beneficiaries, I'd welcome that conversation. Let's discuss how working together could benefit the clients we all serve.

The Financial Conduct Authority does not regulate Wills, Trusts, and Tax Planning.

Here's a LinkedIn post to promote this blog:

When someone becomes a trustee, they're suddenly responsible for complex legal, tax, and financial decisions - often whilst grieving, often with no prior experience.

They need help. But here's the challenge: that help typically comes from three separate professionals who rarely communicate with each other.

Recently, a trustee came to me managing a bereaved young person's trust. The solicitor had done excellent legal work. The accountant was filing accurate tax returns. A financial adviser had recommended investments.

But nobody was talking to each other.

The result? The trustee had spent months trying to coordinate three professionals whilst learning her responsibilities and dealing with grief. Unnecessary tax bills. Inefficient investment structures. Missed planning opportunities.

This isn't about professional incompetence - each person had done their job well within their own domain. What was missing was coordination.

I've written about why trust management works best as a team effort, and more importantly, how we can make that coordination happen in practice for the benefit of trustees and beneficiaries.

It doesn't require complicated systems or formal partnerships. It requires recognising that trustees need coordinated support across legal, tax, and financial expertise - not fragmented advice they must somehow integrate themselves.

If you're a solicitor or accountant working with trusts, I'd welcome a conversation about how we might collaborate to serve clients better.

The Financial Conduct Authority does not regulate Wills, Trusts, and Tax Planning.