Group Life trusts

Discretionary trusts

Our Group Life policies are designed to work in conjunction with a discretionary trust. Any benefits, in the form of a lump sum, will be payable to the scheme trustees.

You can either use or establish your own trust, appointing your own trustees, or you could consider the Zurich Group Life Master Trust or the Excepted Group Life Trust Solution, which removes some of the burdens associated with establishing and administering your own trust.

Employer-established trusts

Group Life benefits can be paid through a pension scheme (which should already have a trust in place), or a standalone Group Life scheme. Standalone Group Life schemes can be either registered schemes, or unregistered schemes with Excepted Group Life policies. Different rules and taxes apply to each type of scheme - these are detailed in each of the product technical guides. Our document library also has a wide range of template trust documents for establishing and amending trusts, and documents relating to our Registered Group Life Master Trust and Excepted Group Life Trust Solution.

Registering a trust

When setting up a registered standalone Group Life scheme under a discretionary trust, the following steps need to be completed before a policy is placed on-risk.

  • Set up the scheme by executing a trust deed.
  • The registered trust deed will appoint a scheme administrator, who needs to register using the HMRC Pension Scheme Online Service. If the scheme administrator has not previously registered, this can take a few days to complete. See the HMRC’s guidance on how to become a pension scheme administrator, or find out more about the role and duties of a scheme administrator.
  • Register the scheme. This is completed through the HMRC Pension Scheme Online Service. Once the scheme is registered, the Pension Scheme Tax Reference number will be available. You will need this number and the date of the trust deed execution before we are able to assume risk for registered Group Life policies. You can find out more by reading the guide to registering a scheme with HMRC.