What is a Trust, and Why Might You Need One?
A trust is a legal arrangement that allows a grantor the ability to transfer assets to a beneficiary, under the terms and conditions set forth in the trust.
In other words, a trust allows you to pass your wealth to future generations or charities on your terms.
How Roosevelt Investments Can Help
In many cases, trusts are funded with property, investments, or cash. The assets in the trust often need to be managed—whether you want the assets to grow, provide income, or simply to be preserved over time. Whatever your goals are, there should be a strategy put in place to address them. Roosevelt can help develop this strategy and manage the assets for you.
Trusts can also be structured in many ways, depending on your individual circumstances and your goals for the assets. Our Wealth Advisors and CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professionals can help you navigate this aspect of your estate plan.
What is the
Difference Between
Wills and Trusts?
A will is a good foundation for an estate plan, and offers a clear, legal method for expressing your wishes after death.
Trusts go a few steps further, enabling you more control over how and when your assets are distributed.
4 Reasons for Considering a Trust:
Control. There are few better methods for controlling how your wealth is transferred after death than with a trust. With a trust (or multiple trusts), you can determine who will receive distributions, when they will receive them, and any other terms and conditions you deem important. Whether your beneficiaries are family members, charities, schools, causes, or perhaps all of the above, trusts can help you organize a long-term plan for passing your wealth.
Protection. Different states have different processes for settling estates (known as probate), and many of these processes are expensive, time consuming, and public. Properly structured trusts and estate planning documents can help you avoid probate altogether.
Historically, estates have also been vulnerable to be the targets of creditors, fraudsters, family members who feel left out, or other parties trying to gain access to the assets. Trusts can ensure there are no ambiguities about where the assets should go.
Taxes. Tax law related to estates changes quite often, and it is likely to continue changing as political power shifts over time. Generally speaking, the U.S. government will exempt a certain portion of an estate from taxes, but any wealth above the exemption is subject to taxes (often high taxes). Trusts can help you to structure your wealth to potentially minimize or avoid estate taxes altogether.
Special Needs Planning. Finally, a trust can help a family care for a family member with special needs, even if the grantor is still alive. There are also situations where a beneficiary may not be able to manage wealth on their own, so a trust can be used to provide structure and management according to what you think is best.
These are just a few reasons to consider opening a trust, and there are also several types of trusts to consider—revocable trusts, charitable remainder trusts, irrevocable trusts, and so on. Each type of trust has different rules, regulations, and guidelines for how they can be used and structured.
At the end of the day, the type of trust that’s right for you—or whether you need one at all—depends on your specific financial situation, goals, and objectives for your estate.
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