Planning Ahead Article
Revocable Living Trust
A trust is a contract between yourself as the Trustmaker/Grantor/Settlor/Trustor and yourself (typically) as Trustee (the person that manages the trust). You can change or revoke the trust at any time that you have capacity.
You can specify who determines your disability. You can set out the terms of the trust to handle distribution while you are alive and well, alive and disabled, and not alive. The trust handles both disability and providing for your beneficiaries. You can set the terms for how and when your beneficiaries receive assets from the trust. If the beneficiary has disabilities, a special needs trust may be appropriate.
You may want assets held in trust for a minor beneficiary. If a beneficiary is going through bankruptcy or has creditor issues, you may want to draft the trust so that the beneficiary cannot demand the money from the Trustee. Sometimes trusts are set up to provide protection in event of divorce (if the beneficiary receives the money outright and then commingles it with spouse, it can be hard to trace what is left, if anything, if the inheritance and amounts not traceable are included in what is divided in the divorce).
Consult an estate planning attorney to review your goals/wishes and the various options in this area.
Make sure you properly fund your trust after signing it and review all beneficiary designations to make sure they meet your wishes. It will be frustrating for your Trustee to not only have to do the trust administration but also the probate because you “forgot” to change title on an asset into your trust.
Comments:
On 3/1/08
James said
WE have our Trusts and wills Made up, WE NEED to Know how to FUND these instruments, thru the Govt, without going thru Lawyers, we have no extra money and want to do the process ourselves..
QUESTIONS
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When a person passes away are the outstanging debts,like credit cards passed on to their adult children?
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When making a will what advantages are there to drafting a single verses joint will?
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Where do I go for help writing a will?
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Do I need a will?
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My mother passed away. She does have a will and I was nominated as the executer and trustee. I am the sole beneficiary. She only has a bank account but when the account was setup nobody was on the account but her. no payable unpon death. What is required by the bank for me to access the account to begin paying for her expences? Her will did state that I shoud have immediate access without going through the courts.
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where can i get free or very low help in filling out a qualified domestic relations order (qdro)
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My mother is the guardian for my brother, who has Down's Syndrome. He is dependent on her for many of his needs. How can she plan ahead in terms of his care and guardianship? In other words, can she put that in her will or does she need to set something up in the courts? What happens if she does not? Kindly,
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When a spouse passes away and has debt in his/her name only, like credit cards, and or contractual obligations for satellite services or cell phone service that charge fee for early termination, etc.- is the remaining spouse responsble for that debt and fulfilling contractual obligation?
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I share a deed with right of survivorship with my adult child. She married and moved to another home. She and her new husband want to buy a new home with space for me to live and will deed my amount on current deed to a new deed with survivorship rights for my adult child. Am I able to still protect her against the Medicaid Recovery Program?
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What is a living will?
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