Investing your Personal Injury Trust

Posted on December 18, 2013

For those who have just received a Personal Injury Award, there may be an initial sense of relief that there has been a successful outcome to the court case, but a feeling of trepidation about investing a significant lump sum will soon arise.

Investing Personal Injury Awards is a specialised skill as it is a different proposition to standard investments for pensions. The PI Awards are often the only earnings for the claimants, therefore the investment must provide an adequate income stream, access to large sums for one-off costs and offer continued security, as future advancements in technology that may assist the disability will need to be covered from the compensation.

At Pearson Solicitors and Financial Advisers we can help you set up a Personal Injury Trust. This means the compensation award is held in the name of Trustees, who are appointed by you (such as a solicitor, family, or friend), so the value of your award does not affect your state benefits. If the award was held in your own name, and the value was over a certain threshold, then your state benefits may be reduced, or stopped entirely, when means-tested.

We then work with you and your Trustees to agree suitable financial objectives for your investment and begin investing in selected products to achieve these goals.

Within PI Trust investing we ensure all parties understand our processes and recommendations, from the role of the Trust, Trustees, or Court of Protection, to the impact the Trust may have on tax and the wider cash-flow and budgeting considerations.

Obviously each case is different, so if you would like to speak with any of our advisers about a Personal Injury Trust then please get in touch. We treat each enquiry with the sensitivity and understanding you deserve.

Please note that the information and opinions contained in this article are not intended to be comprehensive, nor to provide legal advice. No responsibility for its accuracy or correctness is assumed by Pearson Solicitors and Financial Advisers Ltd or any of its members or employees. Professional legal advice should be obtained before taking, or refraining from taking, any action as a result of this article.

This blog was posted some time ago and its contents may now be out of date. For the latest legal position relating to these issues, get in touch with the author - or make an enquiry now.