Many California estate planners have benefited greatly from incorporating a trust into their estate plans. In fact, some individuals have saved their personal assets from certain depletion through a strategically-crated trust document.
Let’s take a look at some of the most important reasons you might want to consider a trust:
Stay in control of your assets while you’re still living
Many California estate planners will try to give away their wealth before they die to avoid estate taxes, and bypass the threat of depleting their assets as a result of the tremendous costs of long-term care. However, a trust offers the means to stay in control of your assets while not technically owning them. This way, medical costs do not deplete them before you can qualify for Medicare benefits.
Sidestep the need for probate
The assets that you place within a trust will benefit from not needing to go through probate before they are distributed to heirs. Since trust assets do not technically belong to you after you’re gone, your trust assets will be distributed directly to beneficiaries without needing to be probated with the rest of your estate.
Creative inheritance strategies
With a trust document, the “grantor” of the trust can detail how the assets should be distributed in many ways. If desired, the grantor can have the assets distributed to beneficiaries over the course of decades with what’s known as a “spendthrift” trust.
Trusts are malleable documents that can be molded according to the wishes of the grantor. If you think that you or your family could benefit from a trust, our law firm is ready to assist.
