Husband/Wife severed their joint tenancy in their property and both wills provided for a discretionary trust to be created on death. Husband has died and a revocable life interest has been appointed to spouse in order to claim spouse exemption.
The spouse would like to have the assets so that she is free to do whatever she likes with them, without any further referral to the trustees, subject to signing a loan agreement for the same value. The trust fund = loan agreement (non-income producing, so no accounts need to be submitted). The value is still aggregated to spouse’s estate (and repaid on her death) and so still protected against future marriage, etc.
However, would HMRC deem the spouse to have given consideration for SDLT purposes if they sign a loan agreement which includes the value of the deceased’s 50% beneficial interest in the property?
Then when spouse also dies, a second discretionary trust would be created - could beneficial interests in properties be transferred to adult children (who wish to retain the properties) subject to their signing loan agreements for the value of their interests (to protect the value and to mitigate IHT, etc) or would HMRC deem the children to have given consideration for SDLT purposes?
Thanks