As set out in earlier posts, and with thanks to the Television Education Network, today’s post addresses the issue of ‘Binding financial agreements and trusts’ at the following link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dS8CjyW0hUY
As usual, a transcript of the presentation for those that cannot (or choose not) to view the presentation is below –
There is no doubt that a properly crafted binding financial agreement or 'BFA' provides the best protection from an asset protection perspective available.
The difficulty is that even despite the changes that the government has brought in to make binding financial agreements more robust, the reality is there is a level of scepticism about just how useful BFAs are actually going to be, because there seem to be so many ways in which they can be unwound on a technicality.
While the general view is that they are the ideal outcome in terms of protecting wealth, the conservative view would always be that steps are taken to complement the BFA and to try and ensure the assets are ultimately quarantined on a relationship breakdown. One obvious example is to implement testamentary discretionary trusts under the estate plan, regardless of whether a BFA is in existence.