Five Essential Benefits of a Trust
Is a trust part of your estate plan? If not, you may want to consider one. There are many different types of trusts that are available to Georgia residents in the Norcross area, and they can serve many different beneficial purposes for individuals who are creating or revising their estate plans. There are trusts that allow the person making the trust (known as the settlor or trustor) to retain control over the trust during their lifetime and to make revisions or cancel the trust as they wish (a “revocable trust”), as well as some types of trusts for which the settlor or trustor must give up that power in order to establish the trust (an “irrevocable trust”). There are trusts that can benefit all of your beneficiaries, yourself, or specific beneficiaries based on their circumstances or individual characteristics.
The best way to determine the type of trust or trusts that you may want to establish as part of your estate plan is to speak with a Norcross estate planning lawyer. In the meantime, the following are the five essential benefits of a trust that you should know about.
- Avoid Probate
Assets that are distributed to beneficiaries from a trust do not need to go through probate. This means your beneficiaries can receive assets much more quickly and with fewer complications.
- Protect Assets from Your Beneficiaries’ Creditors
When assets are held in a trust for your beneficiary or beneficiaries, they are not technically owned by the beneficiary. Accordingly, if your beneficiary owes a creditor, the creditor cannot take assets from the trust.
- Provide for a Disabled Adult Child
Establishing a special needs trust (SNT) can allow you to provide for a disabled adult child without impacting their eligibility for public benefits.
- Protect Assets and Become Medicaid Eligible
If you need long-term care in a nursing home, you may be able to use a Medicaid asset protection trust to protect your assets while becoming eligible for Medicaid to cover the cost of your long-term care.
- Prevent a Beneficiary from Spending an Inheritance Recklessly
When you set up a trust, you can determine the details of distribution to beneficiaries, including when distributions occur and the amounts. This way, you can prevent a beneficiary from spending their inheritance too quickly, wasting the money, or spending recklessly.
Contact a Gwinnett County Estate Planning Attorney to Discuss Trusts As Part of Your Estate Plan
Trusts are an important component of many different estate plans and for a wide range of individuals in Georgia. Given that there are many different types of trusts with varying purposes, it is often true that an individual in Norcross will want to establish multiple trusts to serve different aims.
For example, you may want to create a revocable living trust to allow assets to transfer to your loved ones without going through probate while still giving you control over those assets during your lifetime, while you may also want to establish a special needs trust to explicitly benefit a disabled adult child. Or, for example, you may want to establish a pet trust for a beloved pet, or a Medicaid asset protection trust to ensure your own eligibility for long-term care coverage in the event that you need Medicaid coverage for nursing home care in the future. No matter what type of trusts you need, an experienced Gwinnett County estate planning lawyer at Bowman Law Firm is here to assist you. Contact us today for help establishing one or more trusts as part of your estate plan.
Source:
law.justia.com/codes/georgia/title-53/
