Protecting Vulnerable Beneficiaries
Using Trusts to Safeguard Those Need It Most
Trusts are often discussed in terms of tax efficiency. But for many families, their most valuable purpose is far more personal: protecting a beneficiary who, for whatever reason, could not safely receive a large inheritance outright.
A vulnerable beneficiary might be someone living with a disability or a mental health condition, someone who relies on means-tested benefits or local authority care funding, or simply a person who would struggle to manage a significant sum or could be taken advantage of. In each case, leaving money to them directly can do real harm — exposing it to mismanagement or exploitation and, in some cases, stripping away the very benefits and support they depend on.
Why a Trust Protects a Vulnerable Beneficiary
Placing assets in trust, rather than giving them outright, allows trustees you choose to manage the money in the beneficiary's genuine interest. Because the beneficiary has no fixed, automatic right to the capital, a well-structured trust can:
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Preserve eligibility for means-tested benefits and care funding — since the trust assets are generally not counted as the beneficiary's personal capital.
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Protect against exploitation — keeping the funds out of the reach of anyone who might seek to take advantage.
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Provide professional oversight — appointing trustees, such as a solicitor or trusted family member, to handle decisions the beneficiary may not be able to manage alone.
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Allow funds to enhance quality of life — paying for therapies, equipment, holidays or other "extras" that supplement, rather than replace, state support.
A disabled person's trust — a specific type of trust available where the beneficiary meets defined legal criteria — can also carry favourable tax treatment, combining strong protection with tax advantages.
The Crucial Lesson: Plan It Into the Will From the Start
The single most important point in this area is one that the courts have made painfully clear: it is far safer to create the trust in the will itself than to try to fix the problem after someone has died.
Two real Court of Protection cases illustrate why:
In Re LMS [2020] EWCOP 52, a 21-year-old woman with Sotos syndrome and autism was left around £170,000 directly in her grandfather's will, payable at 25. Received outright, the inheritance would have cost her means-tested benefits and care funding. Her family applied to redirect it into a disabled person's trust by deed of variation, and the court allowed it — reasoning that the significant operative purpose was to give better effect to her grandfather's true intention, not to game the benefits system. Crucially, though, the court also made clear it had no power to guarantee the benefits would in fact be preserved, and the decision has since proved controversial. In other words: it worked here, but it was uncertain, contested, and far from a guaranteed outcome.
By contrast, in F v R [2022] EWCOP 49, a man with a lifelong disability was left an outright inheritance estimated in the hundreds of thousands of pounds. When his family applied to redirect it into a trust, the court refused — taking the view that doing so would amount to deliberate deprivation of assets. The result was that the inheritance counted against him, with the very consequences a trust is designed to avoid.
The contrast is the whole point. Had the money in either case been left through a properly drafted trust in the will from the outset, the deprivation question would never have arisen at all. Trying to repair a poorly drafted will after death is uncertain, stressful and expensive — and it may simply fail.
Getting It Right, In Good Time
Providing for a vulnerable family member is one of the most important things any estate plan can do, and it rewards careful, early planning: choosing the right type of trust, appointing the right trustees, and ensuring the will is drafted so the protection is built in from day one. We help families approach this calmly and thoroughly, coordinating where helpful with carers and other advisers so the arrangement genuinely works in practice.