UK life assurance, pensions and investment manager Standard Life has launched a new discretionary trust to enhance its suite of estate planning solutions. It will be available with Standard Life’s loan, discounted gift and gift plans, joining the absolute trust and the flexible trust currently available with these three plans. The underlying investment choice remains the same, with either an onshore or international bond as the investment vehicle. In a discretionary trust no beneficiary has a right to income or capital; the trustees decide who benefits from the trust. In the absolute trust, beneficiaries are fixed at the outset and cannot be changed by the trustees. With a flexible trust, some beneficiaries have a right to any income arising, but the trustees have flexibility to change the beneficiaries later. Julie Hutchison, estate planning specialist at Standard Life UK Financial Services, said: “This launch gives advisors and their clients an increased choice of three types of trust with each of our three plans. There is a perception that full discretionary trusts are more sophisticated. As a result, advisors who use them are likely to be better positioned to develop their relationships with their professional contacts. I am finding more and more advisors working with accountants and solicitors in the area of estate planning, and these trusts will be of particular interest to those operating in the area of holistic financial advice.”