Category Archives: Trustee

Trustees and Trusts: Roles & Responsibilities

Trust certificate with pen and manila envelop

Unlike a will, a trust will help keep your estate from going through an expensive, time-consuming, and public probate process. If you set up a trust, with trustees, you still create a will, but it becomes a pour-over will, which moves (pours) your assets into your trust.

A Blind Trust: What is it?

blind trust word or concept represented by wooden letter tiles on a wooden table with glasses and a book

The beneficiary of a blind trust also has no knowledge of what goes on with the trust. However, in most cases, the trust-maker is also the beneficiary. That is, the trust contains their personal money and property, and the trustee manages that money and property for the benefit of the trust-maker-beneficiary—the trust-maker-beneficiary just has no knowledge of, or control over, the activities of the trust.

When is the Probate Process Necessary?

The Probate Process in Estate Planning

Your estate attorney can set up joint ownership to create and transfer property. However, this solution comes with its own set of concerns. TOD and POD accounts efficiently and immediately transfer funds to the named recipient after the account owner’s death, outside of probate.

More About a Common Trust

Estate Planning Dividend

The trust created often leaves instructions to the trustee. In these, they note that older children earn an advancement from the common trust. They use this to pay for expenses such as buying a home or starting a business.

A Separate Revocable Living Trust (RLT): What is it?

Revocable Living Trust RLTs Married Couples

When a married couple (the grantors) uses a joint RLT for estate planning, they also serve as initial trustees of the trust. The grantors then combine their separate property and joint property into the same trust.

Wealth Transfer Checklist

Wealth Transfer Estate Plan

To help your loved ones avoid this troubling statistic, educate, and update your extended family about wealth transfer goals. Finally, it alerts them to the plan you created to achieve these goals.

Irrevocable Life Insurance ILIT Trusts

Generational Wealth Transfer

Even if Congress fails to act, in 2026, the current rate sunsets. This cuts rates in half to about $6 million per individual. This blog post discusses ILIT Trusts. So, read on.