My husband and my 14-year-old son are British citizens, and I am Chinese. We have been permanently resident in Spain for over eight years and have property and bank accounts here. We have a Spanish will to deal with them. We also have shares and bank accounts in the UK. The total value is about £560,000. My husband has about £290,000 and I have about £270,000. For the UK part, my husband and I have mirror wills to leave everything to each other. I am the executor and trustee of his will, and he is the executor and trustee of my will. But he plans to leave everything to my son, who is only 14 years old. My questions are: 

1. If my husband dies before my son turns 18 years old, do I have to set up a bare trust for him to inherit the shares in the UK? Can I actually do that since we are all non-UK residents? 

2. Can the bare trust only have one trustee (I will be the trustee)? 

3. Both my son and I will apply to be Spanish citizens in two years. If we also change parts of our names and our nationalities, will it cause a lot of trouble for the future? In other words, can the trustee and beneficiary change their names easily? 

Arthur Weller replies:  

1. If you are concerned about your husband dying before your son becomes 18, you have the option of writing into the will a trust for a ‘vulnerable beneficiary’, should it happen that your son becomes a 'relevant minor' – that is someone under 18 who has lost a parent. This 'bereaved minor trust' has particular tax advantages.  

2. On the Gov.uk website (at www.gov.uk/trusts-taxes), it states that there must always be (at least) one trustee.  

3. I would think that if you can prove that you are the same person as identified or written in the will or trust, even though your name has changed, you should be OK. But if you do change your names, it makes sense to update the will or trust as soon as possible.