I am dealing with a Will of wife who died last year (husband and wife, prepared mirror Wills). They have an only child and no grandchildren - it is most likely that there will never be any grandchildren.
The Will creates a life interest for husband over the property and on his death in accordance with the provisions in Clause X onwards as if the survival condition contained in that clause (to husband) had failed. The provisions after are as follows:-
I give my Residuary Estate to my son absolutely and if my son shall fail to obtain a vested interest leaving issue who survive me then such issue shall take by substitution and if there shall be more than one such issue they shall take in equal shares per stirpes but so that no issue shall take whose parent is alive and so capable of taking.
There is then further substitutional provisions for the distribution of the Residuary Estate if the above fails to extended family.
As the Husband and son are the trustees and (potentially) the only beneficiaries this may be exempt from registration under the TRS.
However, as the wording states if my son shall obtain a vested interest - rather than as shall survive me or the trust period, I am not sure if anything happened to him before his dad that the trust assets would pass to son’s estate under his Will or the extended family as the default beneficiaries. If it is the later we would then need to register the trust on the TRS.
I can appreciate this from a TRS perspective and this might be the case. Although it would be beneficial to understand the default position as to whether the Trust assets would default to son’s estate or extended family. In case anything happened to him.
As the husband has survived he has a life interest in something (not clear whether “the property” and the residuary estate are separate) and that the remainder (it sounds very likely) has vested in the son who has apparently also survived.
This is a trust registrable on the (ludicrous) TRS and should be registered, on the worst view, within 2 years of the wife’s death, even if the admin period has not ended by then. There is no exclusion for a trust where the trustees are also the only beneficiaries unless it is a
co-ownership situation: where the owners of the legal title hold for themselves as joint tenants or tenants in common in equity, though in the latter case the size of shares is irrelevant : TRSM23050.
When the husband dies the remainder will fall into possession and it seems that the son will take absolutely if he is then alive. The trust registration should then be “closed”, a concept known only to HMRC:TRSM95010. If that happens before actual registration has been set in train, so within the 2 years, there would be no need to register.
If the son predeceases the husband it is not clear whether continuing trusts follow, so no “closing”, or absolute ownership requiring “closure”.
Nor is it clear whether there are two separate trusts, over property and residue, or just one.
I posted before reading other contributions. While I do not dissent from Sara’s pragmatic instinct, to register when it may not be legally required should prudently be made with the client’s informed consent, especially as presumably fees would be involved.