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:
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.
