Estate Planning Trusts
Estate Planning Trusts
Propper estate planning is essential to ensure your assets can be used exactly how you wish after you pass. Importantly, estate planning and the use of trusts can help your family avoid the costly and onerous process of going through probate, which can cause undue stress and due to taxation, can considerably eat away at the value of an estate.
Benefits of Creating an Estate Planning Trust
Estate planning trusts offer several key benefits, including minimizing capital gains taxes, providing a steady income stream, enabling charitable tax deductions, and avoiding gift and estate taxes. Additionally, trusts can safeguard your heirs from creditors, serve as part of a succession plan for a family business, and facilitate the distribution of assets to multiple generations over an extended period.
Types of Estate Planning Trusts
There are numerous types of estate planning trusts that provide various benefits, but they can be broadly categorized into two main types: revocable and irrevocable trusts. With revocable trusts, the grantor retains ownership of assets. For irrevocable trusts, assets are transferred out of the grantor’s ownership into the trust. Within these categories, there are several specific types of trusts designed for different estate planning goals.
Special needs and supplemental needs trusts are designed for families of all walks of life and financial means to be able to afford and provide a protected benefit for their loved ones with special needs. These types of trusts are also irrevocable, meaning they cannot be modified, amended or terminated without express permission from the trust beneficiary.
Altruist’s™ trust managers are experts in the administration of special needs and supplemental needs trusts. We can help you and your family navigate the administration and management of a special needs trust. We regularly work with attorneys to help establish special needs trusts for clients and ensure they are setup to offer beneficiaries the financial security and peace of mind to live without worry.
Revocable Trusts
- Living Trusts: A living trust is a legal document that outlines how your property and assets will be managed and distributed after your death. Unlike a will, a living trust is revocable, meaning you can terminate it and transfer the assets back to yourself as long as you are alive and mentally competent. Living trusts offer several advantages, including the ability to implement healthcare provisions, protect grantors and beneficiaries in the event of incapacity, eliminate probate delays and expenses, and provide immediate access to income and principal for beneficiaries.
Irrevocable Trusts
- Asset Protection Trusts protect assets from creditors and lawsuits.
- Charitable Trusts offer tax benefits while supporting charitable causes.
- Special Needs Trusts provide for dependents with disabilities without impacting government benefits.
- Life Insurance Trusts safeguard life insurance policies to avoid estate taxes on the proceeds.
- Marital Trust: A marital trust is an irrevocable trust created to provide for a surviving spouse. They ensure that assets ultimately pass to designated beneficiaries while offering access to the principal, ongoing income, estate tax minimization, and asset protection from creditors and future spouses.
Specialized Trusts
- Spendthrift Trusts mandate how and when beneficiaries can access trust assets.
- Generation-Skipping Trusts (GST) transfer wealth to grandchildren or later generations while minimizing estate taxes.
- Business Trusts separate the owner’s assets from potential liabilities while allowing the business to operate as usual.
- Qualified Settlement Trusts (QST) manage and distribute settlement proceeds in legal cases.
- Testamentary Trusts are established in a person’s will; they control how assets are distributed to beneficiaries after their death.
- More: See our Trust Services page for the most common types of trusts that we help clients and their attorneys develop and then provide ongoing management.
Altruist’s™ caring and dedicated trust managers are experts at helping clients navigate the development and ongoing management of estate planning trusts. We will coordinate with your attorney and help identify the right trust for your situation, goals, and desires for your estate.