Amy Gladwell and Charlotte CoxBBC South West Investigations
BBC
Joyce Gifford says she still has trouble sleeping due to the stress it has caused
When Joyce Gifford found out her name had been removed from her house deeds after it was transferred to a “family protection trust”, she says she felt “sick”.
The 72-year-old signed her home in Cornwall into the trust in 2018 with McClure solicitors, who she says told her it would protect it from having to be sold to meet care fees so it could be passed down to her children.
Her husband was seriously ill at the time.
Mrs Gifford claims it was only in 2023, two years after the Scottish firm went bust and her husband had passed away, that she discovered she was no longer the legal owner of her own home.
As she tells of continuing the fight to regain her home ownership, McClure’s former director says the trust was not mis-sold and that it is a “good product”.
Mrs Gifford dealt with the fallout of the trust at the same time her husband Mike died
Trusts are sometimes used by people as a way of managing assets like money and property, and some people set them up in the hope that it will protect them from having to sell their home to pay for care fees.
However this can be seen by local authorities as hiding assets, known as deprivation of assets, and can therefore be challenged.
Mrs Gifford says she did not understand that when she signed up for the trust.
She says she and her late husband, Mike, took up McClure’s offer of a free will when his health was deteriorating with multiple sclerosis, and it was during a visit to their home by a firm representative that they were encouraged to take out the trust at a cost of £4,486.
“He said, looking at Mike, ‘Have you thought about what’s going to happen if you ever have to go into a home?’…
“‘You could put the home into a trust and therefore the council couldn’t take it and you’d have a home for your two children.'”
She says they were assured it would be a legal way to protect their home from local authority means testing and care fees.
But four years later, on a chance visit to the bank in 2022, she says she was told McClure had gone bust.
She says she later discovered her and her husband’s name had been removed from the deeds and replaced by Ww & J McClure Trust Corporation Limited.
Mrs Gifford says they were not informed that by creating a trust they would no longer be the legal owners but instead the beneficiaries.
“I felt sick, I didn’t know which way to go,” she says.
“I had so much stress and anxiety with this, it was terrible.
“I cried and cried… I still can’t sleep now.”
She says her dog kept her going through the stress
Andrew Robertson, the former director of McClure, says he “refutes that the trust was mis-sold”.
“None of our consultants coerced the clients,” he adds.
He also says its clients signed the trust agreement and transfer, therefore “transferring ownership to the trustees”.
Jade Gani, chair of the Association of Lifetime Lawyers, says asset protection trusts are “not effective for inheritance tax purposes or for avoiding care fees, as there are certain rules that will catch people in those situations and draw them back into the estate”.
She adds that while some trusts “can be a really helpful tool” in some circumstances there are also “tax complexities”.
Police in Scotland carried out an investigation into McClure but a spokesperson told the BBC “no criminality was established”.
Mrs Gifford says McClure has since been replaced by JW Trustees Ltd – the new custodian of the trust files, Jones Whyte – on her deeds, and that her solicitor is still working to get it removed and her name added.
Lee Jackson fears there could be many other people affected
Lee Jackson, 50, from Truro, says he has been through a similar journey with a McClure trust and is now campaigning to help others affected.
When he and his wife signed their home into a trust, they believed they were securing their son’s financial future but say they have instead lost £12,000, including legal fees, to have it dissolved.
Mr Jackson says they paid about £5,000 for a trust after a McClure representative “put the fear of God” into them, saying their son would have an inheritance bill to pay after they died, with a risk they could lose their home if they had to go into a care home.
“They explained it as ‘ring-fencing’ our property,” Mr Jackson claims.
After McClure went into administration, he says he was contacted by Jones Whyte which told him it “believed there were errors” with with the trust files and offered to review them for £350 each plus VAT.
An internet search then led him to the “Victims of McClure’s” Facebook page, which had more than 3,000 members.
“It was our story being told many times on this group,” he explains.
‘Heartache and worry’
Choosing to hire a local solicitor, Mr Jackson says he and his wife soon learnt the trust “wasn’t worth the paper it was written on”.
Through independent tax advice, he says he learnt there had been no danger of his son being liable to pay inheritance tax, and his solicitor told him the claims regarding protection from care home fees were “nonsense”.
Mr Jackson says he was shocked to find McClure’s solicitors were named on the deeds of their house which they had not expected.
“Lots of time, visits to solicitors, admin, heartache, worry – it’s been a nightmare,” he says.
The trust is now dissolved and the Jacksons’ names have been restored to their deeds, but he says he fears for others.
“People are still finding out their properties are in trust and that McClure have gone into administration – they had no idea,” he says.
“They’re horrified, they’re despairing.”
In response, Mr Robertson says: “Each family protection trust was reviewed at head office to ensure that the correct advice had been given.
“The trust did not protect against inheritance tax…
“Every consultant knew this. It was designed to protect against care costs and probate costs.”
He adds: “We arranged well over 20,000 trusts and the vast majority understood and were satisfied”.
Police carried out an investigation into McClure but “no criminality was established”.
On its website, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) says it investigated a range of issues involving McClure but as the former directors were no longer on its roll it was unable to take any enforcement action.
It has also criticised Jones Whyte.
“It has taken Jones Whyte far too long to communicate with some clients and deal with their issues,” it says.
“We have put compliance plans in place to make sure the firm does better…
“This has had a positive impact but there is still more to do.”
Jones Whyte’s founder, Greg Whyte, says: “We contacted each trust client in a measured and sustainable manner.”
He says each one “was notified by the end of May 2025, in agreement with the Solicitors Regulation Authority” and “none of them were obliged to instruct Jones Whyte”.
The SRA says anyone in England who feels they have received a poor standard of service from any law firm should make a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman.
Meanwhile, the Association of Lifetime Lawyers is calling for tighter regulation around the selling of asset protection trusts.
Ms Gani says if people feel unsure about a product someone is attempting to sell them, they should seek independent advice.
