Does anyone know which banks still offer trust accounts, and what to do if the bank says that it will not operate an account for a trust with a non-resident settlor? Is Metro Bank now the only remaining UK bank willing to set up trust accounts?
If the trust is set up but no bank is found that will accept the account, what happens to the funds that have been settled?
(I am asking this as it is a question that seems to come up regularly)
To add to this: it appears that Metro Bank will refuse accounts where the settlor is not UK resident.
Have you tried Skipton? When I had a similar issue, the non UK trustee resigned and a UK trustee was appointed just so that a bank account could be opened as it was felt that a bank account was vital to acting properly for the beneficiaries.
50% with Metro. The assets must be UK based. You could add UK resident parties. Not optimal, however its a work around.
“At least 50% of all key account parties associated with the trust (trustees, settlors and beneficiaries) must be resident in the UK”
Richard C. Bishop
Just to follow up on this, we’ve just had a client be refused at Metro for a trust account. The trustees are all UK resident, the assets are all UK based, the beneficiaries are the settlors 4 adult children, but one of which moved to Dubai last year, which is enough for them to reject the application apparently.
Just following up on my own discussions on this to see if anyone else can offer a solution, I’m an authorised introducer for Cater Allen, who have said that “it doesn’t meet our current appetite” and apparently Skipton don’t offer trust bank accounts at all.
Any thoughts/options from anywhere else?
It seems ridiculous that one of 10 discretionary beneficiaries (children and grandchildren) has gone to work offshore for a couple of years and that means that the trust has no way of opening a bank account…