Altruistic Reasons To Set Up A Trust

When the 99 percent hear about trust funds, they tend to think about rich people spending lots of money on frivolous things and not paying taxes on any of it, but they’re just jealous.  You don’t have to be especially wealthy to set up a trust.  You just have to plan carefully.  People use the money in trusts for the same purposes for which they would designate assets in their wills and for which they would use the savings in their personal accounts during their own lifetimes.  A trust is a way of making your money technically not belong to you or to your estate.  Whether your money legally belongs to you or to a trust in your name has no relationship to where you are on the spectrum from rich to poor or from generous to stingy.  An Orlando estate planning lawyer can help you work out the details of establishing a trust.

Putting Your Wishes in Writing When Everyone Is Sure That You Really Mean It

A living trust starts making financial transactions according to your instructions in the trust document as soon as you establish it and fund it; by contrast, a testamentary trust does not come into existence until after you die.  A living trust can be revocable, meaning that you can modify the trust document, or irrevocable, meaning that you cannot modify the trust document.  If you set up an irrevocable trust while you are alive and well, no one can claim that it was something you did on your deathbed because of undue influence.

Protecting Your Family Members From Their Worst Selves

A lot of people want to name their close family members as beneficiaries of their wills but are afraid of what the beneficiaries will do if they suddenly inherit money from you.  If your daughter has been sober and living paycheck to paycheck for the past ten years, will she relapse when she receives an inheritance?  If your son gets a lump sum inheritance, will he spend half of it on extramarital affairs and lose the other half in his divorce?  A trust can pay out your heirs’ inheritance in monthly installments, so that it reaches them as a source of stability instead of as a Trojan horse.

Giving Money to Charity Instead of to the IRS

As with a will, the beneficiaries of a trust can be anyone you choose, including family members, friends, or charitable organizations.  If your goal is to leave your money to a charity after you die, you can accomplish this at least as easily with a trust as you can by having the personal representative of your estate transfer the money to the charity when your estate settles.  A trust means more money for the charity and its beneficiaries and less money for the IRS.

Contact Gierach and Gierach About Establishing a Trust

An estate planning lawyer can help you set up the best kind of trust for the purpose for which you want to use it.  Contact Gierach and Gierach, P.A. in Orlando, Florida to discuss your case.

Source:

leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0700-0799/0736/Sections/0736.1106.html