Benefits of Setting Up a Trust
Trusts are an important part of your estate plan when you want to leave money to your minor children. Trusts ensure that money, managed by a trustee, is set aside and made available to them when they reach [more…]
Revocable versus Irrevocable Trusts
An intervivos trust — a trust you set up that goes into effect while you’re still alive — can be either revocable, meaning that you can change your mind, or irrevocable [more…]
What Is a Trust?
A trust agreement is a document that spells out the rules that you want followed for property held in trust for your beneficiaries. Common objectives for trusts are to reduce the estate tax liability, [more…]
Avoiding Estate Taxes with an Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust
One common way to get around estate taxes on your life insurance is to create an irrevocable life insurance trust. You transfer the ownership of your life insurance policy to the trust, effectively taking [more…]
Estate Planning with Protective Trusts to Cover Your Assets
Protective trusts — spendthrift, supplemental needs and special needs, education, and minor’s trusts — let you parcel out money when you feel the time is right or specify exactly how the trust money is [more…]
What Are Grantor-Retained Trusts All About?
Grantor-retained trusts let you create a “noncharitable” trust. Instead of the property in the trust eventually going to a charitable organization, the property goes to [more…]
Trust Fund Payment Plans: Intervivos and Testamentary
A trust that makes annual payments to a beneficiary while you’re still alive is an intervivos trust. If you set up a trust to become effective and start making payments after your death, you’ve set up [more…]
How Marital Trusts Work
Most marriage-oriented trusts postpone payment of estate taxes until both spouses in a marriage have died. A marital deduction trust allows you to put property in trust with your spouse as the beneficiary [more…]
What Are Charitable Trusts All About?
Setting up a charitable trust to leave property to a qualified charitable organization can reduce your estate taxes similar to the way giving gifts to charitable organizations offers the charitable deduction [more…]
What Is a Living Trust?
A living trust is a legal document created by you (the grantor) during your lifetime. Just like a will, a living trust spells out exactly what your desires are with regard to your assets, your dependents [more…]
