TRSM23090 | Types of trust that need to be registered: contents: excluded express trusts: contents: historic pilot trusts

Pilot trusts set up before 6 October 2020 are, subject to certain conditions, excluded from registration as express trusts (Sch3A(6) of the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017).

Pilot trusts are trusts that hold a nominal amount. They are typically set up for potential future use, when more substantial amounts will be added, but in practice they remain dormant until that time.

Trusts which hold assets with a total value of £100 or less which were already in existence before 6 October 2020 are excluded from registration on the Trust Registration Service (TRS). Both these requirements have to be met, so adding funds on or after 6 October 2020 to a pilot trust created before that time will remove it from the exclusion if those added funds mean the trust assets now have a total value of more than £100.

There is no exclusion for trusts holding a nominal amount where that trust was created on or after 6 October 2020. These must be included on the register.

Example

As part of his estate planning, Jared set up a trust in 1987 that would receive assets on his death. This trust was set up with £10 and there have been no additions to the trust since. The trustees of this trust therefore do not have to register the trust on TRS.

Jared dies in 2024. As provided for under the terms of his will, the trust receives £200,000 from his estate. The trust is required to register from the date these funds are transferred into the trust. Note that the trust was created in Jared’s lifetime, so the exclusion for trusts created by will (see TRSM23020) does not apply.