An IRA Inheritance Trust™ is a specific type of trust designed to inherit your IRA when you pass away. This option offers a number of benefits that help you transfer your retirement savings to others while protecting those assets.

An IRA Inheritance Trust™ is not the only way an IRA can be inherited, and it’s always important to consider all of your options. Learning about those options and other ways you can protect your assets now and in the future lets you enjoy peace of mind as you plan for your estate.

Find out more about an IRA Inheritance Trust™ below, and then learn how an estate planning lawyer can help you protect your financial future and better provide for your loved ones, even after you’re gone.

Potential Benefits of an IRA Inheritance Trust™

When you create an IRA Inheritance Trust™, you pave the way for your IRA to pass through a very special type of trust when you die. This provides you with a level of control you wouldn’t have if the IRA were inherited directly by a child, relative or other beneficiary. Here are just a few benefits you can gain from an IRA Inheritance Trust™.

More Control Over Assets

If you want to control how assets are used after you’re gone, trusts are probably the best tool. You can define how beneficiaries of a trust can use assets you leave them, including how much they can withdraw in a given period.

When someone inherits an IRA directly, they can choose to take all of the money out at once. Or, they might simply take more than the required minimum distribution every year, moving through the money faster than you might have liked. When the IRA is inherited by a trust, the rules of the trust—that you define—dictate how much money can be withdrawn. You can use this provision to ensure someone is provided for over the long term or to combat poor spending habits. At the same time, a trust may be designed to be very flexible, allowing a mature beneficiary to control the trust and decide what distributions from the IRA make the most sense.

More Choices in Beneficiaries

If you choose to have an IRA Inheritance Trust™ inherit your IRA, you can ensure those assets are available for people who would not be able to inherit the IRA on their own. For example, it may not be wise to name a minor child or grandchild as an IRA beneficiary (because the minor may not understand how to wisely invest the inherited IRA or they might not use the proceeds for things that you intend – ie. a new car rather than education). They can, however, be the beneficiary of a trust that is named as beneficiary of an IRA. This way a trusted adult may manage the inherited IRA as a Trustee and make distributions consistent with your intent as the original IRA owner.

Another time that it can be beneficial to have the trust inherit an IRA is when you want to leave assets for someone who relies on government benefits. Perhaps it’s an older adult who relies on Medicaid or a dependent who gets SSI benefits. Leaving them an inherited IRA may cause them to lose those benefits. However, when the IRA is inherited by a properly drafted IRA Inheritance Trust™, this is not the case.

Increased Protection From Creditors

Once ownership of your IRA passes from you to a beneficiary, the beneficiary’s creditors may be able to seize the IRA, often leaving the beneficiary with only a large income tax liability. Leaving an inherited IRA without any protection can put their inheritance at risk. If the IRA is inherited by an IRA Inheritance TrustTM instead, creditors may be denied access to the assets.

Ability to Leave a Legacy for Multiple Generations

If you have enough money in your IRA, you may want to ensure that some of it is left for future generations.

For example, say you have an adult child who is your closest living relative. That child has two children. You could leave your IRA to the adult child, but that doesn’t guarantee your grandchildren ever benefit from it. For example, if your child leaves the inherited IRA to a spouse, and later the spouse remarries, what’s left of your IRA could pass to someone you’ve never met – your in-law’s new spouse, and not to your grandchildren.

The alternative is leaving the IRA to an IRA Inheritance Trust™ and naming your adult child as the beneficiary. You can name your grandchildren as subsequent beneficiaries. This helps protect some of your legacy for the future.

Further Stretching of RMDs

Finally, depending on the type of trust you create, you may be able to stretch out the required minimum distributions for longer. In most cases, when someone inherits an IRA, they have to take all distributions within 10 years. That’s not the case with most trusts, which usually require a 5 year payout. But the IRA Inheritance Trust™ provides the benefit of using the same payout rules as an individual.

Is an IRA Inheritance Trust™ Right for You?

Generally, this type of trust is best for someone who has a significant amount in their IRA. If you have around $100,000 or more in your IRA, it may be worth considering.

What Other Ways Can You Protect Your Financial Legacy?

An estate planning attorney can help you consider all the types of trusts and which might be right for you. They can also help you create a will, ensure you have the right power of attorney forms in place, and offer guidance about topics ranging from long-term care planning to reducing estate tax burdens.

Find out more about the peace of mind an estate planning lawyer can help you cultivate by calling the Law Offices of Boyd & Boyd, P.C. today.

You’ve worked hard to accumulate assets throughout your life, so why not work just as hard to protect them while going through the estate planning process? With help from a trusts lawyer in Cape Cod, you can secure the protection you need to keep your assets safe for years to come.

So, what exactly is a trust, and how might one benefit you as you take part in estate planning? Continue reading to discover more about trusts and to gain a better understanding of why they’re such powerful estate planning tools.

What Are Trusts?

Surveys have shown that about three-fourths of Americans who go through estate planning create wills rather than trusts. Under 20% of people put together trusts during estate planning. Yet for most families, revocable trusts are the better estate planning choice, especially when their net worth exceeds only $140,000. Because not everyone knows what trusts are, let’s begin by breaking them down.

Trusts are financial tools designed to help people transfer wealth, avoid probate, reduce taxes and protect the assets they’ve accumulated throughout their lives. With assistance from a trusts lawyer in Cape Cod, you can put everything from bank accounts to real estate and even cryptocurrency into trusts for safekeeping. Doing so provides a unique level of protection that may not otherwise be available to you.

When you create a trust, you’ll appoint a trustee to manage the assets owned by the trust. But with many trusts you may continue to be the trustee – keeping control and access to the assets you place into the trust. With other types of trusts, you appoint someone else to be the trustee.  Depending on how the trust is written, it may be possible to protect these assets so creditors and others who might seek to file legal claims against you will be unable to access them easily.

Which Types of Trusts Are Right for Estate Planning?

While trusts can serve as invaluable estate planning tools, it’s worth noting that not all trusts are created equal. For example, a revocable trust is a type of trust that you can make changes to over time, while an irrevocable trust can not be amended by the person who creates the trust (although under modern trust law, it is possible for someone else to amend the trust).

The following are other types of revocable trusts or trust provisions you might want to think about using during estate planning with help from a trusts lawyer in Cape Cod:

• Personal Asset TrustTM
• Optimal Basis Increase TrustTM
• IRA Inheritance TrustTM

These are special types of Irrevocable Trusts that are used for specific goals or purposes:

• Capital Gains Avoidance Trust
• Charitable Remainder Trust
• Domestic Asset Protection Trust
• Spousal Limited Access Trust
• Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust
• Qualified Personal Residence Trust
• Grantor Retained Annuity Trust
• Grantor Retained Income Trust
• Health Education Exemption Trust
• Family Bank Trust

Not all of these trusts are ideal for every estate plan, but at least a few can deliver the protection you & your family may want. Using trusts for estate planning can also eliminate the need for the probate process in the aftermath of your death and ensure your beneficiaries can access your assets more quickly than they could otherwise.

How Can You Set Up a Trust During Estate Planning?

Trusts are hugely beneficial to most families. But there are specific requirements on how they must be created. And the rules for what should go into a trust can be tricky. For this reason, it’s smart to hire a reputable trusts lawyer in Cape Cod to help you set one up.

An experienced lawyer can determine which types of trusts would work well for you based on your current financial situation. They can also work through the process of establishing a revocable or irrevocable trust and show you how to take full advantage of it once it’s in place.

Contact Us To Speak With a Trusts Lawyer in Cape Cod Today

More people should consider using trusts for estate planning. If you are one of them, a trusts lawyer in Cape Cod from the Law Offices of Boyd & Boyd, P.C., can help you every step of the way. Give us a call at (508) 444-9688 to schedule an informative estate planning consultation.

Is It Possible to Preserve Generational Wealth in Trusts Forever?

In most cases, trusts must have some sort of expiration date. Only a few states allow trusts to go on in perpetuity, and in most cases, that only works in very specific cases even in those jurisdictions. However, you can still use dynasty trusts for benefits such as avoiding estate taxes and protecting wealth across multiple generations.

What Is a Dynasty Trust?

A dynasty trust is a trust designed to hold assets across multiple generations. Because the assets remain the property of the trust—and are not transferred into the ownership of heirs and beneficiaries—they remain protected against estate tax burdens, creditors, divorces and financial mismanagement by certain heirs

For example, imagine a situation where the grandfather in a family has plenty of wealth to pass on. However, he is concerned that future events might impact the wealth he will leave his adult child – events like a divorce, lawsuits resulting from accidents, etc. His worry is that there may be nothing left to pass on to grandchildren or great-grandchildren if he leaves assets directly to his child. That causes him to create a dynasty trust.

Historically, a Dynasty Trust is set up where there is a professional trustee, like a bank or a trust company. The trustee manages the assets in the dynasty trust according to the trust’s provisions. The Trustee will decide how much income and/or principal will be disbursed to the adult child and, later, the grandchildren and great-grandchildren. However, none of those people own the assets (because the trust owns the assets). They also do not have access to the trust assets outside of allowed distributions, so the adult child who may not be good with money cannot put all the assets at risk in the future.

Today, however, Dynasty Trusts are far more flexible. They can be set up in ways that offer the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren far more control over the inheritance, without the requirement of a professional trustee. The Personal Asset TrustTM and the IRA Inheritance TrustTM are both a type of Dynasty Trust.

How Long Can a Trust Last in Massachusetts

Massachusetts has a common law and a statutory rule against perpetuities – both rules follow centuries old law that requires a trust to have an ending date. Consequently, trusts in most states cannot protect assets forever. Otherwise, individuals could use these trusts to protect wealth from certain taxes forever.

The rule in Massachusetts is that the trust must end 21 years after the death of the last beneficiary who was alive at the time the trust was created. Consider a hypothetical example to understand how long a dynasty trust might protect generational wealth for an affluent family:

• Edward wants to set up a dynasty trust to protect wealth for his children and other descendants.
• Edward is 67 years old and has two adult children: Robert is 42, and Tracy is 35.
• Robert has three children aged 22, 19, and 17.
• Tracy has two children aged 12 and 10.
• Robert’s 22-year-old also has a child, age 1.

Edward names all of these people as beneficiaries in the trust he creates. He might also create provisions that add other grandchildren or great-grandchildren as they are born, but the age of the trust depends on when the above people pass away.

Imagine that the 1-year-old listed above is the last person alive of those who were alive at the time the trust was created. If this person lives to age 95, the trust would last 21 additional years. All in all, the trust would protect the family’s wealth for 115 years.

What Are Some Benefits of a Dynasty Trust?

One of the biggest benefits of a dynasty trust is that it can help you protect assets against your heirs’ creditors, bankruptcies, divorcing spouses or other claims. Some trusts also allow you to have a say in how wealth is used or managed in the future, even when you are no longer able or present to give such direction yourself.

Another benefit of a dynasty trust is that it allows affluent families to avoid being hit with sizable estate taxes when transferring assets between generations. You do need to consider the implications of taxes and other financial matters when you first fund the trust. You may also need to consider income tax and other implications related to disbursements, and an experienced trust attorney can help you think long-term to maximize protections and savings.

Are There Any Downsides to a Dynasty Trust?

To provide the type of immediate and ongoing protection described above, dynasty trusts must be irrevocable. For this reason many families use revocable trusts while they are alive. After the person who created the trust dies, the trust becomes irrevocable – and it is at this point families have the trust act as a dynasty trust. It used to be very difficult to make changes to this type of trust, but that is not the case anymore. Dynasty trusts can be written so that they can be amended after they become irrevocable. But it is still important to consider your goals and the implications of the trust on future generations.

Those considerations necessarily require you to make educated guesses about future family finances and needs. An estate law team can help you approach this task by looking at the big picture and then considering how every detail might be relevant within that comprehensive outlook.

What Other Types of Trusts Might Help Safeguard Generational Wealth?

Other types of trusts might also help you safeguard wealth for future generations. Options can include Capital Gains Avoidance Trusts, Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts, and Spousal Lifetime Access Trusts.

Each type of trust supports different financial goals and has different mechanisms to protect your assets. Understanding which trusts are right for you and your family is critical to being able to plan ahead appropriately and protect generational wealth. You may find that you need more than one type of trust to protect your assets.

Work With the Team at Boyd & Boyd to Protect Your Wealth

The experienced estate law team at the Law Offices of Boyd & Boyd, P.C., can provide the insight you need to understand trust options and what might work best for your family. To find out more about our services and schedule an appointment to get started with trust creation, give us a call at 508-444-9688.

How Can Trusts Shield My Wealth from Legal Disputes?

Trusts stand as a bulwark in the preservation of family wealth, particularly against legal disputes. Focusing on the Personal Asset Trust™ and IRA Inheritance Trust™ offers a nuanced view of how these instruments can fortify an estate planning strategy. The key to a successful estate plan is understanding and implementing a plan that takes advantage of the difference in leaving assets “For” your loved ones and not leaving assets “To” them.

Personal Asset Trust™: A Fortress for Beneficiaries

The Personal Asset Trust™ (or PAT) is a revolutionary tool designed to extend beyond the basic protection offered by traditional trusts. It ensures that assets passed to beneficiaries remain secure from potential creditors, legal judgments, or even divorce proceedings. This trust acts as a robust barrier, offering a way to protect the inheritance from external claims without compromising the beneficiary’s access to their inheritance assets. In essence, with the PAT you choose to leave assets in a trust for your heirs, yet allowing the primary beneficiary to be in control of the trust share s/he inherits.

IRA Inheritance Trust™: Safeguarding Retirement Assets

The IRA Inheritance Trust™ offers a strategic means to protect retirement assets inherited by beneficiaries. Instead of naming the beneficiaries as the direct recipient, retirement funds name the IRA Inheritance Trust™ as the beneficiary, again, offering a protective shield against creditors and legal disputes. This not only secures the retirement assets but can also manage the distribution according to the grantor’s wishes while at the same time giving control to the beneficiary, providing both protection and financial advantage. Similar to the PAT, by naming a trust as the beneficiary of a retirement account, you are giving your loved ones a way to protect the inherited retirement account, because it does not belong to the beneficiary. Instead it is held for the beneficiary by the trustee (who is often also the beneficiary).

LLCs: Complementary Protection

Incorporating Limited Liability Companies (LLCs) into an estate planning strategy can add another layer of protection. LLCs can be especially helpful when leaving the family vacation home to the next generation. LLCs can also be used to segregate personal assets from business ventures, minimizing the risk to personal wealth from business liabilities. This separation is crucial for affluent families involved in business activities, ensuring that the family’s wealth is insulated from potential business-related legal challenges.

Do I Have to Be Proactive About Estate Planning?

Estate planning goes beyond dictating the distribution of assets posthumously; it is a strategic approach to managing assets throughout one’s life. It ensures that, upon death, assets are allocated as wished while safeguarding them from potential legal threats. Given the substantial assets affluent families possess, they are often more vulnerable to high taxes and legal disputes arising from creditor claims, divorce, or other legal proceedings. The Vanderbilt family is an example: Cornelius Vanderbilt, once considered the richest American, was worth around $95 million when he died in 1877. Less than a century later, when his descendants gathered for a family reunion in 1973, there was not a single millionaire among them.

The essence of effective asset protection lies in anticipation—setting up defenses before legal disputes emerge. Once a dispute is imminent, asset protection may be impossible. Early planning facilitates the strategic relocation of assets into protective entities such as trusts, greatly reducing the chance of legal entanglements. And in most states, an heir is not permitted to implement a plan to protect inherited assets from the claims of creditors or divorcing spouses once the inheritance is received.

How Do I Integrate Trusts and LLCs into a Comprehensive Estate Plan?

In the grand scheme of estate planning, incorporating Personal Asset Trusts™, IRA Inheritance Trusts™, and LLCs is not merely a defensive strategy—it is a forward-thinking approach that ensures your family’s wealth is preserved and passed on according to your wishes. Understanding the practical considerations and benefits of these tools can empower affluent families to make informed decisions about their estate planning endeavors.

Practical Considerations:

When integrating these asset protection tools into your estate plan, consider the nature of your assets, your family’s future needs, and potential legal vulnerabilities. For instance, the Personal Asset Trust™ is particularly beneficial for families with significant real estate or investment holdings, offering a way to protect these assets while providing for future generations. Similarly, the IRA Inheritance Trust™ is crucial for those with substantial retirement accounts, ensuring these funds are protected from divorces and creditors, and, if needed, that the funds are managed according to the grantor’s wishes.

It’s also worth developing plans to fight small claims lawsuits that may be brought against you by creditors. While these cases may not seem too financially concerning, they can be time-consuming and set a precedent for additional claims. Services like JusticeDirect provide useful resources to help asset holders navigate small claims issues.

Benefits of a Holistic Approach:

Adopting a holistic approach to estate planning by utilizing these trusts and LLCs offers several benefits:

Enhanced Protection: These tools collectively provide a robust defense against potential legal threats to your family’s wealth.

Flexibility and Control: They allow for greater control over how and when assets are distributed to beneficiaries, ensuring your legacy is honored.

Peace of Mind: Knowing that your estate plan includes comprehensive measures to protect your family’s assets can offer unparalleled peace of mind.

By thoughtfully integrating Personal Asset Trusts™, IRA Inheritance Trusts™, and LLCs into your estate plan, you are not just safeguarding assets—you are securing your family’s future and ensuring that your legacy endures through the generations. With the guidance of experienced estate planning attorneys, affluent families can navigate the complexities of asset protection with confidence, crafting a legacy that withstands the test of time.

Trusts in Action: Real-World Applications

Protecting Inheritance from Creditors

Consider a family wanting to protect their estate from potential future creditors of their heirs. By establishing a Personal Asset Trust™, they can ensure that their children’s inheritance is shielded, allowing the heirs to benefit from the assets without the risk of future financial disputes affecting their inheritance. While most families have confidence in their childrens’ ability to manage an inheritance, a simple accident can create significant liability – often for millions of dollars, placing any inheritance at risk.

Securing Retirement Benefits

For a family wishing to protect retirement funds, the IRA Inheritance Trust™ becomes a pivotal tool. It ensures that upon the grantor’s passing, the retirement assets are transferred into this trust, giving families a tool to safeguard them from claims and allowing for controlled distribution to beneficiaries.

Do I Need Expert Guidance?

The complexity of trust planning and asset protection necessitates professional advice. Estate planning attorneys navigate the legal intricacies, tailor strategies to specific family needs, and anticipate and mitigate risks. In a constantly changing legal and financial environment, having an experienced attorney by your side offers not just a strategic advantage but peace of mind.

As the landscape of asset protection evolves, so too must the strategies employed. The advent of digital assets and changing legislation highlight the need for flexibility and adaptability in estate planning. Regular reviews and adjustments with the guidance of experienced attorneys ensure that asset protection measures remain effective and aligned with the family’s goals.

Trusts, particularly the Personal Asset Trust™ and IRA Inheritance Trust™, along with the strategic use of LLCs, offer affluent families robust solutions to protect their assets from legal disputes. Partnering with experienced attorneys ensures that these tools are effectively utilized, safeguarding the family’s wealth and legacy for future generations. To start working on a comprehensive asset protection strategy today, reach out to the Law Offices of Boyd & Boyd.

This article was last updated: Dec. 1st, 2023

Generally speaking, an Irrevocable Trust may not be changed, but several narrow exceptions allow a deceased spouse’s Irrevocable Trust to be amended. To make any changes, the surviving spouse should have the advice and services of the right Cape Cod estate planning attorney.

Irrevocable Trusts have become increasingly popular in recent years as an estate planning tool. Irrevocable Trusts often reduce the tax burden on a Donor’s estate (a Donor is the person who creates the Irrevocable Trust) while transferring the Donor’s assets to his or her loved ones.

Additionally, assets in Irrevocable Trusts are protected from creditors and legal judgments because an Irrevocable Trust will not be a party to a lawsuit. In return for these benefits, the Donor gives up his or her right to amend the terms of an Irrevocable Trust.

However, after a spouse’s death, the law in Massachusetts (specifically Massachusetts General Law Chapter 203E § 411) does allow for revisions to a deceased spouse’s Irrevocable Trust, provided that specific criteria are met and that the appropriate legal procedures are followed.

What Are Irrevocable Trusts and How Do They Work?

A Revocable Trust becomes irrevocable upon the death of the person or persons who have the right to amend the trust.  If each spouse has a separate revocable trust, when one spouse dies, that spouse’s trust becomes irrevocable.  In many cases, the trust is designed to split into two or more irrevocable sub-trusts. This is usually done for a specific, limited purpose, such as estate tax reduction.  The Typical A-B Trust does just that.  In some states, like Massachusetts, it is necessary to create A-B-C trusts to shelter a portion of the estate from the state estate tax.  But after one spouse dies, it may become desirable to modify the irrevocable trust because of changes in the law, tax changes or changes in a family’s situation.

After the death of a Donor, a Successor Trustee is responsible for the administration of the Trust. In Massachusetts, a Successor Trustee may need the advice of a Cape Cod Trust attorney to ensure a smooth and straightforward administration of the Trust at every stage of the process.

Amending an Irrevocable Trust by Petitioning the Court

After a Donor’s death, if all of the beneficiaries agree, they may petition a Massachusetts court to amend an Irrevocable Trust. If their proposed revision does not conflict with the original aims of the Trust, the court will usually grant the beneficiaries’ request and allow the amendment.

A petition for court-approved modification of an Irrevocable Trust may be particularly helpful after a Donor has died and the beneficiaries need to modify the Trust because circumstances have changed.

What Is Decanting?

“Decanting” allows the Successor Trustee of an Irrevocable Trust to distribute – or to “decant” – assets from the original Irrevocable Trust into a second Trust with more favorable provisions.

The original Irrevocable Trust must contain a provision that gives the Trustee authority to decant the trust. Decanting doesn’t “amend” an Irrevocable Trust, but decanting instead creates a new Trust that in effect amends the original Irrevocable Trust.

There is no Massachusetts law that specifically authorizes decanting, but in the case of Kraft v. Morse (2013), a Massachusetts court held that when an Irrevocable Trust gives a Successor Trustee the authority to make discretionary distributions, decanting is included in that authority. Additionally, the Kraft case requires that going forward, a decanting provision must be included in the original trust document for a Trustee to decant an irrevocable trust in Massachusetts.

What Are Trust Protectors?

Some trust documents may include Trust Protector provisions. A Trust Protector may be an individual may be named within the document, or sometimes the trust may allow for naming the person to act as a trust protector in the future. The language in the Trust document spells out the precise authority that a Trust Protector has, but essentially, a Trust Protector’s role is to protect the inheritance that is passing through the trust.

Some Trusts grant a Trust Protector limited authority to amend the Trust. This authority may include the ability to amend the Trust in response to changes in tax law, to remove a Successor Trustee, or to take other actions to protect the Trust assets. If granted the authority, a Trust Protector may:

1. amend the language of the Irrevocable Trust document
2. remove a Successor Trustee or beneficiary
3. modify distributions based on the beneficiaries’ circumstances

Can a Trust Document Provide for Its Own Changes?

Trusts have developed over time, and today’s Irrevocable Trusts may include many provisions that were not usually included in older versions of these documents. These provisions may offer more flexibility in the distribution of assets and the management of the Trust. In fact, in many states, the law allows for an Irrevocable Trust to be amended by an agreement among the Donor (if available), all beneficiaries and the Trustee. For states where there is no such provision under state law, an Irrevocable Trust document may allow the trust to be amended if the Trustee and the beneficiaries all agree on the terms of the amendment. Amending by Agreement can save families thousands of dollars by avoiding the need for a court proceeding to amend the trust.

If your spouse has passed away, a Cape Cod estate planning attorney can review your deceased spouse’s Irrevocable Trust and scrutinize the document’s language to determine if it allows for amendments or changes.

If you need to amend a deceased spouse’s Irrevocable Trust, and if the change is legal, reasonable, and does not conflict with the general goals of the Irrevocable Trust, a Cape Cod Trust attorney can probably help you make any necessary changes.

Why Would You Change a Deceased Spouse’s Trust?

While an Irrevocable Trust may need to be changed, for example, in order to respond to changes in the tax laws, a Trust may also need modification for specific and personal reasons. Let’s say that a husband creates an Revocable Trust, for himself and names his wife and adult children as beneficiaries after his death, and names his wife’s brother as the Successor Trustee.

Upon the husband’s death, the Trust becomes Irrevocable. Typically the Irrevocable Trust would now become a new taxpayer. Most Irrevocable Trusts are taxed at very high rates – 37% on income over $13,451 as of 2022. If the surviving spouse wished to lower the taxes, a simple amendment can change the way the Irrevocable Trust is taxed. For example, the Irrevocable Trust could be amended so that the trust is essentially ignored for income tax purposes. This would result in the income being taxed at the same bracket as the beneficiary – and result in significant tax savings every year.

But remember, an Irrevocable Trust must include a provision for (1) amending by agreement, (2) amending through a Trust Protector, or (3) amending by decanting. Otherwise, any change of this nature requires unanimity among all of the beneficiaries. If even one beneficiary opposes an amendment to an Irrevocable Trust, a Massachusetts court will not approve or even consider the modification proposal.

Sometimes, there may be additional methods to amending a trust, so don’t rule out the option if you think it may be difficult to get one beneficiary’s approval. Instead you should consult with a Cape Cod estate planning attorney who can tell you your options.

When Should You Contact a Massachusetts Trust Attorney?

If you do not have a Trust, Will, or estate plan established, you probably should, especially if you have a family, own a business, or own property or assets. We cannot predict tomorrow, so you should consult an estate planning attorney now about protecting your estate and your loved ones.

When an Irrevocable Trust document does not precisely spell out how a Trust dispute is to be resolved, a beneficiary or Successor Trustee may need the advice and services of a Massachusetts Trust attorney to help manage and resolve the dispute.

Massachusetts Trust attorneys also offer Trustee and estate administration services aimed at helping a Successor Trustee effectively handle his or her many obligations.

If you need to make changes to a deceased spouse’s Irrevocable Trust, a Massachusetts Trust lawyer will work with you and will provide the insights and legal services you may need. To learn more – or to begin the process of amending an Irrevocable Trust – you should contact a Trust attorney now.