Putnam County Trust Lawyer
Many people create a will to pass assets to their friends and family after death, but often a trust is a better option. With a trust, you can accomplish many of the objectives of a will and garner additional benefits, such as a reduced tax burden for your family. At Meyer & Spencer, we have been using trusts with our clients for decades. For more information, please contact one of our experienced Putnam County trust lawyers.
Benefits of Using a Trust
One of the primary benefits is that you can avoid probate. After death, your will must go through probate, which can be long, drawn out, and sometimes expensive. Probate is also public, so any member of the public can read your will if they are inclined.
Many of our clients are worried about how their family will survive while they wait for the probate process to play out. By creating a trust, you can make income or assets immediately available to your loved ones.
Trusts also can also reduce your tax burden or the burden of those who will inherit from you. In certain situations, leaving assets in a trust will also allow a disabled person to continue to qualify for important government benefits, since the trust assets will not count as income.
Some Trusts are Revocable
When you create a trust, you retitle assets so that the trust owns them. It is precisely this step that allows some clients to realize tax savings, since they no longer own the assets and can’t be taxed on them. instead, the person in charge of the trust (the trustee) manages the assets for the benefit of beneficiaries.
However, many clients fear that they might change their mind and want their assets back. For this reason, they hesitate to create a trust. Fortunately, you can create a “revocable trust” which allows you to do precisely that. You can change your mind at any time and put the assets back in your name.
Types of Trusts
There are countless different trusts, each of which is created to accomplish a certain objective. For example, you might create any of the following:
- Charitable trust. You can reduce taxation by leaving assets to a charity.
- Life insurance trust. You can avoid taxation of life insurance proceeds by having a trust own a life insurance policy on you. At death, the trust will invest the proceeds on behalf of the beneficiaries.
- Qualified Personal Residence Trust (QPRT). You can use this trust to transfer your home to someone at a reduced transfer tax cost while still living in the home.
- Spendthrift trusts. The trustee has full authority to decide how funds can be spent for the benefit of the beneficiary. Spendthrift trusts are helpful if you want to leave assets to someone who cannot control their spending.
These are only some of the trusts we have experience creating.
Contact a Putnam County Trust Lawyer Today
Whether to use a trust will require an individualized assessment of your circumstances and your goals. You should meet as soon as possible with a trust lawyer who can help you consider your options.
At Meyer & Spencer, we have created innumerable trusts for our clients and are prepared to use them as part of your estate plan. For more information, please call to schedule a consultation, 845-628-0009. Serving Putnam County, including Mahopac.
