Adding a trust to your estate plan can be an excellent way to ensure more control over your assets.
Putting together an estate plan and understanding the differences between wills, trusts, powers of attorney, and more can be challenging. Fortunately, your estate planning lawyer at The Millman Law Group can help you navigate this process. One of the advantages working with a lawyer brings is understanding the specific benefits of each document. For instance, how can adding a trust strengthen your estate plan? A trust can help you in ways that other documents can not. To learn more about the benefits of this estate plan feature, keep reading.
What a Trust Can Do That a Will Cannot
A few benefits apply when adding a trust, which do not apply when you create a will. These benefits include:
- Probate Avoidance: Probate is an often lengthy and costly court proceeding, but it can be avoided by using one or more trusts.
- Tax Reduction: Trusts help the person who wrote the will reduce estate and gift taxes on their estate.
- Disbursement Control: Trusts allow the will writer, or testator, more control over asset disbursement.
Your trust reduces the potential for a beneficiary to erode their inheritance due to poor financial choices. For instance, a spendthrift trust can provide financial support for a beneficiary but prohibit that beneficiary from selling their interest in the trust funds.
The disbursement of trust funds can also be contingent on the beneficiary’s achievement of specific goals. A trust also helps shield the fund’s money from creditors. Several trusts can be created, and your lawyer can help you determine which is best for your needs.
Select Who Controls Your Property
When you set up a revocable or irrevocable trust for your assets or funds, you can decide to be a trustee. You can also name co-trustees, including your spouse, children, or a family friend. You can even name a successor trustee who will take over if the primary trustee passes away or becomes incapacitated. Trusts are just one more tool that allows you more direct control over your assets.
Protect Your Assets
If you own real estate, have life insurance, or have assets of any value that may go to probate, you can certainly benefit from adding a trust to your estate plan. However, the type of trust you need depends on your health, age, and the amount and location of all assets.
With the guidance of an expert lawyer, you can feel confident knowing that your assets are protected, and your estate will avoid probate and significant tax liability. This ensures a smoother transition of assets after your death and fewer difficulties for your beneficiaries.
Estate Planning Made Easy With Millman Law Group
Millman Law Group, PLLC is rare because it’s one of the only law firms that offer life planning in South Florida. From life care planning to the preparation of detailed estate plans, Millman Law Group has committed to serving Floridian elderly communities in Boca Raton, Palm Beach County, Ocean Ridge, Hillsboro Beach, and many other areas since 2018. Our dedicated team also specializes in special needs trusts and catering to any age demographic because we know for certain it’s never too early to start preparing you and your family for your future. For the latest news in estate planning and elder care law, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, and Pinterest. You can also contact us at 561-463-6480.