Trusts

Trusts and Trust Agreements 

Trusts are not just for rich people to minimize taxes. There’s actually some significant non-tax reasons to consider using a trust. For instance, they are very commonly used vehicles to accomplish a lot of important goals, ranging from transitioning from incapacity and death to protection, preservation and management of assets. A few benefits of trusts are that they avoid court proceedings, which can be time consuming, expensive and unpredictable. They also enable you to control how your estate descends to beneficiaries, so it’s either protected or managed prudently. Said differently, it can keep it in the family if your child is going to take it to Vegas, or if your child has drug problems, special needs, or is married to a spouse that you hate. You can customize how much control you give them too. If there are certain milestones where you want to give them money to contribute to something, you can insert directions for additional distributions, such as a first house, first divorce, winning little league, graduation, or for each wedding. Just kidding. Giving money and assets to beneficiaries outside of a trust subjects them to unnecessary risk. Lastly, trusts provide a framework to manage assets over a long period of time, for whatever reason that’s important to you. 

There are some drawbacks of using trusts too. They require administration, tax returns, and legal advice. That can be a pain in the ass. Trusts are not for everyone, but they should be considered in any thoughtful estate plan. 

You’ll learn more about this in our report once you take our questionnaire.