I definitely recommend trusts because it gets the assets out of your name and at the same time, you maintain control. Another way some people go is to do a deed with a right of survivorship or a joint ownership. There is danger in this in that the other party to the deed might be in an accident or might cause an accident and be sued. The one who sues them could possibly take that property, or at least their half of the property, and make you sell it. Therefore, you are putting that property at risk by having joint ownership whereas in a trust, it does not happen that way.
Are Assets Held In A Trust Protected From Creditors?
If you create the proper kind of trust, it can protect assets from creditors. This will have to be an irrevocable asset protection trust. However, if you create that trust after you know that someone may sue you or has a debt that you owe then if they apply to the court, the court can set aside your trust as violating the law against doing those types of things. There is a statute of fraud which prevents you from protecting your assets after you know or should know that someone may sue you.
How Can A Trust Avoid Probate?
The trust avoids probate because it is a legal entity and the trust owns all of the trustor’s assets. If a person dies owning a home, then he must go through probate to pass title to the home. However, if the trust owns the home, the trust continues to exist whether or not that person is alive. Therefore, there is nothing to be probated from a trust. Instead, the terms of the trust tell us what happens to that home after the owner or the person dies and this can be done immediately without waiting eight months to a year for probate to finish.
What Happens To A Trust Upon The Death Of Its Maker?
Nothing happens to a trust when its creator dies because it continues to exist, just as if the maker did not die. What is important is what the trust says should happen after that maker dies. Those are all spelled out in the trust and the successor trustee, the one who takes over after the maker dies, will read the trust and do exactly what it tells him or her to do in distributing assets.
What Is Involved In Trust Administration? How Does It Compare With Probate?
Trust administration is what happens after the trustor passes away. In that case, the successor trustee who was named in the trust takes over the administration of the trust and that person will read the trust and distribute assets as the trust dictates. That may be immediate or he may hold assets for a period of time, but that is what the job of the successor trustee is. In a probate, all of the assets go into the probate estate and the court administers that for either months or sometimes years. There are many delays if you go through probate.
Can Someone Realistically Handle Trust Administration Without An Attorney?
Most people will need an attorney to help them administer a trust, unless they are very well versed in financial matters and some legal matters. The transferring of deeds, of course, has to be done by an attorney and the attorney is usually better suited to understand the language in the trust and to make sure that exactly what the trustor wanted to happen does, in fact, happen. This also relieves some of the liability of the successor trustee because he is relying on a professional to help him.
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