Date Added: September 19, 2014 06:39:28 PM

The traditional family home has always been a place of security. Not only in terms of the protection it provides while your children are growing, but also the financial support it can provide after you have gone.

However with increasing costs for nursing home care and the growing burden of inheritance tax, ensuring your wealth and home is safe for future generations is not as obvious as it used to be.

But there is a way to keep your major assets safe for future generations, with an Asset Protection Trust from Think IFA.

So How Does an Asset Protect Trust Work?

Steven Keogh, Founder of the independent financial advisor website ThinkIFA.com explains: "An Asset Protection Trust gives you the opportunity to protect your most important assets, such as your home and life savings, from both inheritance tax and the rising burden of nursing home fees.

It works by transferring the ownership title of your most valuable assets from your own name into those of a trust.

Though you can still make full use of the assets and manage them as your own, if they are not in your name, then they should not be included in the Local Authority Assessment of your wealth when they are considering your liability for nursing home costs".

He also adds: "Furthermore, as the assets are transferred directly to your intended beneficiaries at the designated point in time, it is also possible to reduce the level of inheritance tax they are liable to pay".

But the benefits do not stop there.

A trust of this type will also reduce the time it takes for your beneficiaries to receive their inheritance after you have gone.

Though probate can be costly and time consuming, any assets held in the trust can be directly transferred to your beneficiaries with ease.

For those concerned about the threat of sideways disinheritance, an Asset Protection Trust will also ensure your assets are left to the people that you want to receive them, no matter what happens after you are gone.

However, you need to act fast

To make an Asset Protection Trust fully effective, it has to be set up when it can be considered a viable method of asset management, not simply a way to stop the local authority forcing you to sell your house to pay nursing home fees.

For this reason, it is essential to set up the trust as soon as you can while you are still in good health. Contact an Independent Financial Advisor and discuss the benefits of an Asset Protection Trust to keep your family home in safe hands.