A trust attorney is an estate-planning professional who can help you set up a trust as part of your estate plan to avoid probate and ensure that your family is taken care of after you pass away. Trusts have many possible benefits, depending on the type of trust and its provisions. A knowledgeable trust attorney will help you to decide whether a trust is right for you and which type best fits your desired outcomes. Setting up a trust involves complicated legal paperwork, and a skilled trust attorney will take care of that process, ensuring that all laws and regulations are followed and that the trust will stand up in court if challenged.
What Are Some of the Benefits of Trusts?
It is difficult to list all of the benefits to be gained by setting up a trust because there are so many different types of trusts, each appropriate for a different circumstance. Here are a few of the general benefits of trusts, though there are many more, depending on the type of trust:
- Avoiding Probate: Probate is a court process that your estate may go through after you pass away. It can be lengthy and expensive in some cases. The assets in a trust are not subject to the probate process, which can save your loved one’s time and money.
- Managing Assets: Sometimes, it can be beneficial to transfer the ownership of assets while still retaining access to them. Trusts can allow this. Depending on the specifics, putting assets in a trust might protect them from creditors, prevent them from being counted as assets on certain benefit applications like Medicaid, or provide tax benefits in some situations.
- Providing for Loved Ones: Trusts can be used to transfer wealth or to provide for a disabled child or other family members.
- Protecting Inheritance Against Waste: A spendthrift trust can limit a beneficiary’s access to their inheritance, doling it out over time instead of presenting them with a large lump sum. This can keep them from squandering all you have worked so hard to give them and can protect it against any creditors they might have.
This list merely scratches the surface of what trusts can do. An experienced and knowledgeable trust attorney can guide you to the right type of trust for your situation and get it set up correctly and professionally.
What is the Difference Between a Revocable and an Irrevocable Trust?
A revocable trust offers flexibility to make changes or dissolve them altogether during your lifetime. Sometimes circumstances change, and the terms of your trust may need to change with them. Irrevocable trusts, on the other hand, cannot be changed or ended. Once they are established, they are set in stone, so to speak. While irrevocable trusts are more likely to have tax advantages than revocable trusts, there are some situations in which revocable trusts are more appropriate. One of our skilled estate planning attorneys can help you choose the best option.
Why Choose Dudeck Law Firm?
While some law firms spread their attorneys thin, covering cases from a broad range of practice areas, here at Dudeck Law firm, we focus on estate planning and elder law. This focus allows us to deepen our experience and broaden our knowledge of these areas of law with every new client we see. Call us today to see if a trust might be right for you.