I am looking for clarification on statutory powers of advancement for life interest trusts, and if the whole or only half can be advanced in this instance.
My client is the life tenant of a successive life interest trust. Their grandfather’s will (dated July 1986) created a life interest for his wife, which on the wife’s death would pass equally to my client and their sibling for life. The remaindermen of the successive trust are the respective issue of my client and sibling.
The wife died in 2022, and the sibling died 2021, whose half of the trust has since been distributed.
The trustees and my client have agreed to advance the remaining capital to the remaindermen, however, the will does not grant any express powers of advancement. I would therefore be relying on the Trustee Act 1925, but require clarification on whether the ITPA 2014 would apply to this successive trust.
Are the trustees’ powers set at the date of the will, and therefore only half can be advanced as per the original Trustee Act 1925? Or, given the date of the wife’s death, can the trustees rely on the IPTA 2014 and advance the whole?