While putting your property in a trust may protect your surviving spouse or civil partner from paying care home fees in the future, this is not guaranteed and should not be your motivation for creating a trust.  A property trust can enable your spouse or civil partner to benefit from your share of the family home without actually owning it: they would own their share, and when you die, your share would be owned by the trust. Should your surviving spouse or civil partner need support from a local authority to pay for their care, the local authority will start with a financial assessment (or ‘means test’) to find out how much financial support they need. The part of the property held in the property trust may not be counted as part of their estate. But it’s important to understand that there are strict rules in place to protect against ‘deprivation of assets’. That’s the term used when someone intentionally decreases the value of their assets to avoid paying for care.  If a local authority decides that your trust has been created specifically for your spouse or civil partner to avoid care home fees, they can decide to treat the property as being wholly owned by them. In that situation, your spouse or partner may have to pay for some or all of their care. So, while a property trust is one way to provide for your spouse or civil partner and protect your children’s inheritance, avoiding care home fees should not be your motivation for creating one.  For more support and guidance on the benefits of including a trust in your will, book a call with a specialist.