Trusts

Let Our Attorneys Help Create The Right Trust For You

While they are not essential for everyone, many people consider trusts to be a cornerstone of their estate plans. These are powerful legal tools that give you considerable control over how, when and to whom your assets are distributed. They can work in concert with a will or largely replace it. If carefully crafted, a trust may greatly simplify or eliminate the need for probate.

When creating a trust, it is important to work with a knowledgeable attorney like those at Rick Law. On this page, we discuss just some of the many different types of trusts available – any of which we can help you establish.

Two Common Trusts In Estate Planning

Perhaps the two most common estate planning trusts are the revocable living trust and the testamentary trust. When you create a revocable living trust, you would immediately transfer some or all of your assets into the trust and name yourself as the trustee. This way, you can continue to control your assets while you are still living. You can alter or revoke the trust at any time until you either pass away or become incapacitated. The trust then becomes irrevocable, and a successor trustee would then distribute assets according to the terms of the agreement.

A testamentary trust is created after your death based on terms established in your Last Will & Testament. Because a will is designed to direct where your assets go after you pass away, it may seem like a testamentary trust is redundant. However, transferring estate assets into a trust allows for more control over the terms, conditions and timeline of distribution.

Customized Trusts for a Wide Variety of Purposes

Our attorneys can help you create either a revocable living trust or a testamentary trust. But depending on your needs and goals, we can also help you create any of the “specialty” trusts listed below:

Supplemental needs trusts: These help provide funding for the care of a family member who is disabled (often those who cannot provide for themselves).

Special Needs Trust: These also help for funding special needs of a disable individual but in Pennsylvania are set up using the disabled individual’s personal funds.

Charitable trusts: These establish a source of income for you, your beneficiaries and a chosen charitable organization.

Funeral trusts: Essentially, this is funds set aside to cover the costs of a funeral and burial.

Spendthrift trusts: These allow you to pass assets to your beneficiaries under strict conditions, often because one or more beneficiaries is financially irresponsible or needs oversight regarding the assets.

Generation-skipping trusts: If you wanted to set aside assets for your grandchildren that will not be controlled by your children, a generation-skipping trust would likely be the best way to do so.

Life insurance trusts: If you have a sizeable life insurance policy, this trust can remove the proceeds from the insurance payout from your taxable estate. It can also speed up disbursement of funds to your beneficiaries.

Totten trusts: These allow the beneficiary to access trust assets immediately after the death of the person who created it (the grantor). They are sometimes refereed to as “payable on death accounts.”

Grantor retained annuity trusts: Large financial gifts to heirs/beneficiaries sometimes come with significant tax burdens. These trusts essentially take care of that tax burden when the trust is created, easing those burdens for beneficiaries.

This list isn’t exhaustive. If you have questions about any of these trusts or those not listed here, we’d be happy to answer your questions and explain your options.