A Protective Property Trust (PPT) — sometimes called an Asset Protection Trust or Property Protection Trust — is a will-based trust that lets you leave your share of the family home to your children while giving your surviving partner the right to live in it for the rest of their life. It is one of the most common trust arrangements in UK wills, particularly for couples concerned about future care fees or wanting to protect children's inheritance from a surviving partner who might remarry. It is also one of the most over-sold and misrepresented products in the UK estate-planning market. This guide covers what a PPT actually does, when it genuinely helps, when it doesn't, and what to watch out for.
Key takeaways:
- A Protective Property Trust is a will-based trust where your share of the home passes to trustees on your death, with your surviving partner having a life interest (the right to live there) and your children inheriting after the survivor's death.
- Used correctly, a PPT can protect your half of the home's value from being assessed if your surviving partner needs care later.
- It is NOT a guarantee against all care fees — it only protects the share that was already in trust, not the surviving partner's share.
- PPTs are frequently mis-sold by unregulated firms charging £2,000-£5,000 for what should be straightforward trust drafting. Take regulated legal advice before signing up.
- For most simple "leave it to spouse, then children" plans, a clean mirror will is enough — PPTs only earn their complexity in specific blended-family or care-fees scenarios.
What a Protective Property Trust actually does
A typical PPT in a UK will works like this:
- You and your partner own your home as tenants in common (each owning a defined share, usually 50:50). If you currently own as joint tenants, you sever the joint tenancy first.
- Your will leaves your share of the home to your trustees, on trust for the named beneficiaries (usually your children).
- The trust gives your surviving partner a life interest — the right to live in the home for the rest of their life, or to use the proceeds if the home is sold and a replacement bought.
- When your surviving partner dies, the trust ends and the home (or what's left of your share) passes to your children outright.
The legal mechanism is a life interest trust (or "interest in possession" trust). PPT is the marketing name for one specific use of it — applied to the family home.
What it protects against
The headline benefit is partial protection from care fees for the surviving partner.
Here's how. If your partner outlives you and later needs care, the local authority will assess their assets to determine whether they pay for the care themselves or whether the council contributes. Their own assets — their share of the home, savings, investments — are assessable.
Your share of the home, sitting in a Protective Property Trust, is not your partner's asset. They have a life interest, but they don't own it. The trust beneficiaries (your children) own it.
So if your partner ends up in care and the home has to be sold:
- Their share is assessable and used to pay for care
- Your share, held in trust, is not — it remains protected for your children
This is the genuine benefit. In a couple owning a £400,000 home 50:50, a PPT could protect up to £200,000 (your share) from care fees, instead of the whole £400,000 being at risk when the survivor needs care.
What it does NOT protect against
This is where PPTs get mis-sold. They do not:
- Protect your partner's share from care fees — that's still assessable
- Make the home immune from sale if both partners eventually need care
- Reduce inheritance tax in any meaningful way (the spouse exemption already does this for spouses)
- Cover savings, investments or other assets outside the home
- Protect against deliberate deprivation of capital rules if set up too close to needing care
Anyone telling you a PPT "protects your home from care fees" or "passes everything tax-free to your children" is overselling. Take that as a red flag.
When a PPT genuinely helps
Three situations where a PPT is the right answer:
1. Blended families wanting to protect the deceased's children
The classic case: you have children from a previous relationship. You want your current partner to live in the home until they die, but you want your share of the home to eventually go to your own children — not your partner's (who would inherit if the survivor simply left everything to them).
A PPT enforces this. Your share goes to your children at the right time, not at the survivor's discretion.
2. Concern that the surviving partner might remarry
If your partner outlives you and remarries, their new will (or intestacy if they don't make one) governs what happens to everything they own — including any inheritance from you, and including the home if it passed to them outright on your death.
A PPT prevents this by keeping your share out of the surviving partner's estate. They get the life interest only; they cannot give away your share to a new spouse.
3. Long-term care fee planning (limited)
For couples worried about future care fees, a PPT protects the deceased partner's share from the surviving partner's care assessment. Not a full solution — the surviving partner's share is still assessable — but it can mean half the home value is protected.
When a PPT is NOT the answer
- Simple "everything to spouse, then to children" plans — a clean mirror will already handles this. You don't need a trust to add complexity.
- Couples with no children, or only mutual children — there's no "competing" interest to protect against. The trust mechanism is unnecessary.
- Where speed and simplicity matter — PPTs make probate slower and more expensive. The trust has to be administered, accounts kept, eventual termination handled.
- Set up close to needing care — local authorities can challenge arrangements that look like deliberate deprivation of capital under the Care Act 2014. If you make a PPT after a dementia diagnosis or near care planning, expect challenge.
The mis-selling problem
The biggest warning sign in this market: the unregulated "asset protection trust" sales pitch. Common features:
- Door-to-door or seminar-style sales targeting older couples
- £2,000-£5,000 quoted for the package, often including unnecessary extras (LPAs, will rewrites)
- Vague claims about "protecting your entire estate from care fees"
- Pressure to sign quickly
- Setting up an inter-vivos trust (during your lifetime) rather than a will trust — much riskier and frequently challenged
Properly drafted will-based PPTs from regulated solicitors cost £500-£1,200 typically. Lifetime trust schemes for "protecting" the family home from care fees are routinely challenged and often fail.
How to make sure you get the right thing
If you're considering a PPT:
- Confirm you're in one of the three scenarios above where it genuinely helps. If not, stick with a clean mirror will.
- Use a regulated solicitor (member of STEP, the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners, is a strong indicator). Avoid unregulated firms.
- Sever your joint tenancy if you currently own the home as joint tenants — the PPT only works if you each own a defined share as tenants in common. See our tenants in common guide.
- Get the trust drafted as part of your will, not as a separate lifetime trust. Will trusts are much harder to challenge under deprivation-of-capital rules.
- Don't pay £3,000+ for what's essentially a standard trust clause in your will. The Trusted Hands service flags trust scenarios but recommends a solicitor for the actual trust drafting — and that solicitor's fee should be in the hundreds, not the thousands.
Trusted Hands handles straightforward bare trusts in our builder. For Protective Property Trusts and other life-interest arrangements, we recommend a regulated solicitor partner. The cost saving and quality assurance compared to door-to-door asset-protection firms is significant. Start your will →
Frequently asked questions
Will a PPT save inheritance tax?
Not usually. Anything left to your spouse — including a life interest in your share of the home — qualifies for the unlimited spouse exemption from IHT. The IHT position is essentially the same whether you leave your share outright or via a PPT.
Can my partner sell the house if my share is in a PPT?
Only with the trustees' consent. The trust gives the surviving partner a life interest (right to live there or use the income/proceeds), but ownership of your share sits with the trustees. In practice, trusts usually give the surviving partner the right to move to a replacement property of equivalent value, with the trust transferring across — but the trustees have to agree.
Who should be trustees of my PPT?
Typically your adult children plus an independent person (a solicitor, a trusted friend, or a professional trustee). Naming your surviving partner as a trustee creates a conflict because they're also the life tenant.
What if my children fall out with my surviving partner?
This is a real risk. The trust mechanism gives your children a long-term interest while the surviving partner is still alive. Family relationships under strain can lead to disputes. A letter of wishes accompanying the trust can help guide trustees through such situations.
Can the trust be unwound?
While both partners are alive, you can revoke the trust by rewriting your wills. After the first partner dies and the trust takes effect, unwinding requires either trustees' agreement (with all beneficiaries) or a deed of variation within two years of death (with all beneficiaries' consent).
Are "asset protection trusts" set up during my lifetime the same thing?
No. Lifetime asset-protection trusts transfer your home into a trust while you're still alive. These are aggressively marketed to "protect" the home from care fees and inheritance tax. They are much riskier than will-based PPTs — local authorities routinely challenge them as deliberate deprivation of capital, and they have significant CGT and IHT consequences. Take regulated advice before considering one.
How much should a properly drafted PPT cost?
Through a regulated solicitor, expect £500-£1,200 for the will containing the PPT, depending on complexity. Unregulated firms quoting £3,000-£5,000 are charging far too much for what's involved.
Trusted Hands is a UK will-writing service. We handle straightforward bare trusts for minor beneficiaries within our guided builder; Protective Property Trusts and other life-interest arrangements benefit from regulated solicitor drafting. We are happy to refer you to suitable solicitor partners.
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