A BASIC UNDERSTANDING OF TRUST DOCUMENTS. Murray | Lobb Attorneys

A Basic Understanding of Trust Documents

Although many people still request Wills from their attorneys, it’s now often best for tax purposes to have the bulk of your estate transfer to others through one or more trusts. To better understand how trusts work, you first need to understand that there are living trusts and testamentary trusts.

Living trusts, also known as “inter vivos” trusts, are created during the grantor’s (or requesting party’s) own lifetime. By contrast, a testamentary trust is created within a Will and doesn’t become legally enforceable until after the grantor has died. As your estate planning attorney will tell you, there are two types of living trusts – those that are revocable and those that are irrevocable.

Revocable trusts let you maintain control over the trust assets, allowing you to revoke or change the trust’s terms whenever you believe it’s necessary. Should you instead create an irrevocable trust, the law no longer views the assets in the trust as yours – therefore, you normally cannot make any changes to the trust without the trust beneficiary’s consent.

While there are many different types of trusts and ways to set them up, the following ones are among those commonly requested by clients.

Frequently Requested Trusts

The Charitable Lead Trust. This type of trust can be created during the grantor’s own lifetime or upon that individual’s death. It provides for a type of annuity to be given to a charity for life or for a specific term of years. If there are any remaining trust assets, they are passed on to non-charitable beneficiaries when the trust terminates.

The Credit Shelter Trust. Many married couples with children often choose this type of trust because the surviving spouse can maintain full rights to the trust assets until his or her death. At that time, the trust benefits can then pass to the children. This trust is also commonly used because it allows the creator to escape estate taxes when passing the trust assets on to heirs.

The Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust. When you move your life insurance out of your estate by having this type of trust created, it’s no longer part of your taxable estate. The funds are then readily available to help pay for any possible estate costs or for other immediate cash needs of your beneficiaries.

Generation-Skipping (or Dynasty) Trusts. Grandparents often like to set these up because they’re designed to allow grantors to give tax-free money to beneficiaries who are two or more generations their junior.

The Qualified Terminable Interest Property (Q-TIP) Trust. If you’re in a second or third marriage and you and your current spouse had children during earlier marriages, you’ll want to learn more about this trust. It helps you not only leave your surviving spouse with income, it also lets you leave specific assets to your various children.

The Qualified Personal Residence Trust. You can use this to remove the value of either your main residence (or a vacation home) from your estate. It’s especially wise to create this type of trust regarding a property that’s very likely to increase in value over time.

The Special Needs Trust.  Many families have at least one member who suffers from some type of serious physical or mental disability. When you set up this type of trust, its terms can be restricted regarding how the assets can be used – thereby still allowing your loved one to qualify for certain types of government benefits.

As this article indicates, there are many different types of trusts that offer distinct advantages and disadvantages. Please feel free to contact our firm with any questions you may have about the specific types of trusts that may best suit your goals and preferences.

Posted in Beneficiary, Changes, Documents, Estate Planning, Finance, Murray Lobb, Planning, Trust Funds, Trusts
Tagged #basics, #knowledgeispower, #MurrayLobb, #murraylobbattorneys, #understanding, Assets, Houston
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