Winding up a trust

You can maintain all the benefits of your charitable trust without the ongoing legal and management responsibilities by winding up the trust and transferring assets to a ring-fenced fund with the Foundation.

Essentially, you can choose to stay in control. As former Trustees you become advisers to your fund, advising on themes for ongoing grant distribution. Typically this maintains the charitable purposes of the former Trust, however if these purposes are redundant we can assist with finding modern day equivalents (a process known as ‘reorganisation’).

The reorganisation process requires authorisation from OSCR, the charity regulator, and the Foundation can assist you with acquiring consent or permission to reorganise.

The transfer of assets involves Trustees making a gift of capital to the Foundation, which is held in a ring-fenced endowed fund, earning interest. The capital and interest can either be spent over a number of years (an expendable endowment) or it can be held in perpetuity, where only the annual interest is used (a permanent endowment).

For more information, please call our development manager Gill Thring on 0131 524 0300.