You are entitled under your GDS contract to join other partners to your contract and this is an action for which the PCT cannot refuse consent. You are therefore fully at liberty to place the GDS contract in the joint names of yourself and another person on your local PCT performers list, one of your Associates for example. This would mean that in the event of your death the PCT would not be able to treat your contract as terminated. It would continue in the name of the surviving partner preserving the goodwill value attached to the practice.
This course of action must be accompanied by a bespoke Partnership Agreement which provides that you effectively are responsible for all income and expenditure of the partnership and hold all the managerial responsibilities of the arrangement.
The other partner is in effect a “ghost” partner with practically nothing in the way of powers or responsibility or equity ownership. It would in effect be a partnership in name only simply to preserve the status of the GDS contract. Incorporated into the Partnership Agreement would be provision that in the event of your death the “ghost” partner would be required to market the practice for sale on the open market (perhaps offering them a right of first refusal if they wish) and that all proceeds of that sale be paid to your estate or wherever else you nominate.
Here at Cohen Cramer we have particular experience of arranging for the transfer of the GDS contract into joint names and the preparation and drafting of the Partnership Agreement to regulate how the arrangement would ultimately benefit your family and dependants should the worst happen.
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