Why trusts are becoming essential to modern financial planning

In that environment, one planning instrument, trusts, has emerged not as an artefact of bygone tax arbitrage, but as a bedrock of sophisticated advice. The numbers speak for themselves.

Across Techzone, our technical content hub used by advisers and paraplanners, discretionary trusts were the single most accessed topic in 2025, with over 81,000 hits. That placed them ahead of pension-specific themes, residence nil-rate band, and every other area of estate or tax planning.

That alone marks trusts as front of mind for advisers navigating increasingly complex estates. Advisers are not browsing in passing. They are searching, revisiting and applying this material. That is adviser demand in action.

Even the newer insights show the same pattern. A recently published piece on our site, which looked at 15 points to consider around gifts out of surplus income, has already recorded over 40,000 views. Extrapolated over a full year, that would place it second only to discretionary trusts.

That tells us advisers are not simply interested in trusts in isolation. They are focused on the practical mechanics of using them alongside broader lifetime and death planning strategies.

Inheritance tax receipts have more than doubled over the past decade and now sit at around £7.5bn.

That point is reinforced by sustained interest in taxation of bonds in trust, which generated more than 73,000 hits, and pensions and emergency tax content, which attracted over 35,000 views.

These are not abstract technical exercises. They are issues that arise when advisers are actively combining trusts with real client portfolios and planning decisions.

None of this should come as a surprise. As our technical expert Andy Zanelli recently highlighted, inheritance tax receipts have more than doubled over the past decade and now sit at around £7.5bn.

Advisers are already seeing how the inclusion of pensions within the inheritance tax net from 2027 is reshaping client attitudes and planning priorities.

So, why trusts in 2026? Has the industry not spent years suggesting that trusts were side-lined by tax changes, reporting requirements and administrative burden?

That narrative is now badly out of date.

Trusts answer questions clients are asking

Our data tells two important stories. First, advisers are not stepping away from trust planning. They are engaging with it more deeply. Second, trust content is being accessed alongside tax and investment topics, not as a niche curiosity.

That reflects real client concerns. Many households now face blended family structures, worries about vulnerability and incapacity, complex mixes of pensions, bonds and investments, and rising estate values that pull more families into inheritance tax territory.

Trusts allow advisers to construct solutions that outright gifting and standard wills cannot deliver. They enable control without immediate loss of ownership, flexibility without ambiguity, and tax efficiency that supports rather than overrides client intent.

This is why lifetime and death planning topics remain so popular. Pensions once sat comfortably outside the inheritance tax estate and were often relied upon as core planning tools.

With that position changing, advisers are increasingly looking to trust-based strategies to restore balance and resilience to estate planning.

Trust use is strategic, not static

It is worth addressing another misconception. Trusts are not being used instead of advice. They are being used because of advice.

In 2025, the Aberdeen Adviser technical team completed more than 2,600 adviser appointments. While monthly volumes fluctuated, demand remained strongest for trust and estate planning expertise, accounting for around 60% of technical consultations across the year.

That is not casual interest. It is evidence of advisers working through live cases and seeking specialist support.

Trusts require advisers who understand when and how to use them in the context of a client’s wider financial life

At the same time, adviser engagement with technical content reached record levels. Techzone recorded more than 1.25 million hits in 2025, an increase of nearly 6% on the previous year and the highest annual total to date.

Advisers are not disengaging from complexity. They are leaning into it, provided the support is there.

Advice remains central

What this data ultimately reinforces is the enduring value of professional advice.

Trusts do not operate on autopilot. They require careful design, appropriate trustee selection, clear documentation and ongoing review. Above all, they require advisers who understand when and how to use them in the context of a client’s wider financial life.

As advisers navigate pension reform, frozen thresholds, rising property values and increasingly diverse client needs, those who can integrate trust planning into holistic advice will continue to stand out.

Trusts are not relics of the past. They remain one of the clearest expressions of what high-quality financial advice looks like in practice.