What a property-protection trust is
A property-protection trust is a legal arrangement through which a person’s share of a property is held on trust for named beneficiaries, usually after death. In the right circumstances they can protect a share of the estate for children from a previous relationship, provide for a surviving spouse while ring-fencing a share for others, and support orderly estate planning.
Where they can be useful
- Blended families where both partners want to protect children from previous relationships.
- Making sure a surviving spouse has a home for life while a share is preserved for named beneficiaries.
- Clarity about who inherits what, reducing disputes.
Known limitations in the context of care fees
Many families have been introduced to property-protection trusts primarily as a care-fees solution. The limitations here are important:
- Where a trust is set up at a point when care is already foreseeable, the local authority may consider the transfer under the deprivation of assets rules.
- A trust that holds only a share of a jointly-owned property may do nothing to protect the share belonging to the person who may need care.
- Not every trust product sold by every provider is of equal quality. Historic complaints and legal cases exist in this area.
- Rules and local-authority practice may change over time; a trust set up today should not be relied on as a guaranteed outcome in twenty years’ time.
Questions worth asking
- Is this trust being recommended primarily for care-fees reasons, or for broader estate-planning reasons?
- What happens if the local authority challenges the arrangement?
- What are the trustees’ duties and who will act as trustee?
- What are all the costs, including ongoing administration?
- Is a solicitor regulated by the SRA (or equivalent in your part of the UK) involved in drafting?
How we approach it
We do not sell trusts. We will explain the realistic position and point you to independent, suitably qualified legal advice if a trust appears relevant to your situation.
Related questions
- Do I have to sell my house to pay for care?
- Not automatically. Whether the home is counted depends on who else lives in it and on your part of the UK. See our full guide for the hedged detail.
- How much are care home fees in 2026?
- Weekly fees vary a lot. As a very broad illustration, residential care may fall around £900–£1,500 per week, nursing care higher. Always ask the individual home for a written fee schedule.
- Is there a seven-year rule for care fees?
- No. The seven-year rule comes from inheritance tax. For care-fees deprivation-of-assets purposes there is no automatic clock.
- What is deprivation of assets?
- A rule under which the local authority can treat an asset you no longer own as still belonging to you if they conclude you transferred it with a significant purpose of avoiding care fees.