Trusts And Trust Administration
The most powerful tools in estate planning are trusts. Trusts are basically instructions you write showing exactly how you want your life assets to be transferred. There are many kinds of trusts, achieving many different objectives, from tax optimization to asset protection.
Unlike a will, a trust is a private document and need not be filed with the probate court. They are used not just to sidestep the probate process, but to optimize the tax burden and to transfer assets in the precise way you intend.
Special Needs Trusts · Revocable Living Trusts · Charitable Trusts
Trusts are legal tools that offer significant benefits for you and the people you love. The right trust can protect your assets, care for a loved one with special needs, help your family avoid the stress of probate or even support a cause that matters to you.
Every family’s situation is different, so the type of trust that works best for you will depend on your goals and your loved ones’ needs. Here are three types of trusts that can make a real difference in your estate plan.
Special Needs Trusts
Government programs like Medicaid and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) have strict financial limits. If a person with a disability receives a direct inheritance or gift, they could lose access to those benefits. A special needs trust works around that by holding assets separately, so they do not count against those limits.
This trust can cover expenses like education, transportation and personal care without affecting their eligibility for benefits. The person funding the trust also has control over how the money gets used, so you can feel confident your support goes exactly where it is needed.
Revocable Living Trusts
A revocable living trust allows you to manage your assets during your lifetime and pass them on to your loved ones after you are gone. You create the trust, transfer your assets into it and name yourself as the trustee – meaning you stay in full control. You can also update or cancel the trust at any time, which is what makes it “revocable.”
Because the trust already owns your assets, your estate skips the probate process entirely when you pass away. Unlike a will, which becomes public record after death, a trust keeps your financial matters private.
Charitable Trusts
People create these trusts to fund a wide range of causes, from helping people in financial or physical need to supporting the arts and education. Beyond doing good, these trusts can also offer real financial advantages, such as reductions in estate taxes, gift taxes, income taxes and capital gains taxes.
Charitable trusts also give the organizations you support a reliable source of funding, helping them plan ahead, cover expenses and continue serving the people who depend on them. If leaving a lasting legacy matters to you, a charitable trust is a powerful way to make it happen.
Trusts are not a substitute for a will, and a will is not the same as a trust. But trusts give individuals remarkable flexibility in planning for the future. Talk to the estate planning attorney at Lins Law Group, P.A., to discuss a trust that is just right for your situation.
For more information, read our Probate And Trust Administration FAQ page.
Trust Administration Lawyer
Trusts must be created, and then they need to be properly administered. Trust administrators, known as trustees, must handle trust accounting, sending notices to beneficiaries, managing estate appraisal and inventory, filing taxes and administering subtrusts, if any.
In the event that trust disputes should arise, Lins Law Group, P.A., is experienced in trust litigation.
Trust administration requires knowledge of the law and experience working in trust administration. Whether the trust was drafted by our office or another firm, we at Lins Law Group, P.A., are happy to assist trustees in administering the trust.
What is a living trust and how do I establish one?
A living trust is established by executing a formal written document which appoints a trustee to take possession of assets transferred into the trust and directs the trustee how to administer or manage the assets in the trust. The living trust allows the person setting up the trust (usually called the “grantor” or “settlor”) to designate themselves as the initial trustee and then to designate a successor trustee if the grantor dies or becomes incapacitated. The living trust authorizes the trustee to exercise certain specific powers in managing the trust without having a probate court involved. The living trust also allows the grantor to designate who will be the beneficiaries of the trust and to specify how the beneficiaries will receive their distributions. Many people like the living trust as a means of making distributions into the future, in increments or over a period of time rather than all at once. This becomes very important when beneficiaries are minors or are not mature enough to receive an inheritance all at once. While there are some similarities between a will and a living trust, the main difference is that with the living trust, assets or property are actually transferred to the trust during the grantor’s lifetime whereas with the will no transfer occurs until after death. As a result, with the living trust when the grantor dies, the grantor’s property is already in the trust and therefore is not subject to probate. Another attractive feature of the living trust is that it has great flexibility during the grantor’s lifetime. The living trust can be modified or amended by the grantor at any time. The assets and property transferred into the living trust can also be added to, replaced and removed at will. This means that to the grantor, he or she gains a great estate planning benefit from the living trust but does not lose use of his or her assets by transferring them into the living trust.
Need to issue instructions to the future? To understand your many trust options, call Tampa trust lawyer Michael Lins at Lins Law Group, P.A., at 813-280-0082, or write us using this online form.