Swiss Life is launching a trust arrangement allowing partnerships to take out keyperson cover on the...
Swiss Life is launching a trust arrangement allowing partnerships to take out keyperson cover on the lives of employees, previously the domain of limited companies.
As first revealed in COVER, Swiss Life has devised a trust that requires only one partner to take out the policy.
Under English law, a partnership has no legal existence separate from the partners of the firm and, until now, each partner would have had to set up keyperson policies individually as a policy could not be set up in the name of the partnership.
Under the Swiss Life scheme, the partner taking out the trust acts on behalf of all the partners in the firm with the benefit payable by the policy being written under the trust.
The trust can be applied to protection benefits payable under life, income protection and critical illness plans. Any claims proceeds are payable to the trustees for the benefit of all the partners.
The trustees can either be the partners themselves, including the partner who has effected the policy, or an independent trustee, such as the partnership's solicitor.
