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.
Category Archives: Trusts
Although these two types of law differ and apply to varying stages in life, many handle them simultaneously. This is because many people wait till later in life to start their estate planning process.
Before asset distribution, the estate’s executor should make every effort to pay all outstanding debts. After bills are paid, and the remaining assets are accounted for.
The key to ensuring that your estate plan will work the way you envision is understanding that how you own your money and property (i.e., how title is held) determines whether your will or trust, or neither, controls who will receive that money and property.
When people create estate plans, they typically focus on distributing their money and property to loved ones. For those interested in multigenerational wealth transfer, consider dynasty trusts.
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 choosing trusted decision makers, select individuals based on their strengths. In other words, consider which characteristics or traits each decision-making role requires.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) describes S corporations as “corporations that elect to pass corporate income, losses, deductions, and credits through to their shareholders for federal tax purposes.”
The news that you will be receiving an inheritance is often bittersweet. Sadly, it means that somebody close to you died. However, you might also have mixed emotions about your inheritance for reasons that have to do with the actual accounts or inherited property.
An annual itemized deduction is available for payment of state and local property, income, and sales taxes. This deduction cannot exceed $10,000, however.