Saturday, January 11, 2014

Protect Your Estate Through An Asset Protection Trust

By Marissa Velazquez


Accumulating assets takes time and it is therefore very essential for you to protect them so that they will not be affected if you are sued or if you file for insolvency among other things. There are many methods of protecting investments with one of them being establishing an asset protection trust. This is an agreement between a trustee and a grantor.

A trustee is the party that is entrusted the task of managing the assets of a grantor for the benefit of beneficiaries. The trust agreement requires grantors to transfer their assets to the trustees they choose. Trusts can either be irrevocable or revocable. They may be included in the will of a grantor to take effect when he or she passes on.

To protect your estate through trusts, you should make sure that they have an independent trustee, have a spendthrift clause and allow distributions at the discretion of the trustee. Revocable trusts can be revoked or changed at any time and this is the reason why the government considers the specific investments to be still included in the taxable estate of the grantor. For this reason, you may have to pay estate taxes on the assets that remain after your demise.

If you have revocable trusts, you may also be required to pay income taxes on the revenue generated by the investments that are held in them during your lifetime. Revocable trusts usually become irrevocable when a grantor becomes disabled or dies. If you place your investments into irrevocable trusts, they will be permanently removed from your estate and transferred to the trusts.

You can ask your trustee to pay income tax and capital gains on the trusts for you. After your demise, any investments you have in irrevocable trusts will not be taxed because they will not be viewed to be part of your estate. You can name a trustee to be solely responsible for managing your investment portfolio or choose to work with him or her at times especially when a major decision has to be made.

Grantors can also choose to assign full authority to the trustees to act on their behalf. They can choose individuals such as their relatives and friends or professionals like accountants or lawyers to be their trustees. Grantors can also choose entities that are experienced in money management, taxation or estate law to be their trustees.

There are different trusts that investors can choose from depending on their on their needs and objectives. Investors can choose to set up a living trust if their goal is to offer expert management for their affairs if they become mentally or physically disabled. Living trusts allow investors to maintain control of their estates and receive all income and benefits when they are alive. After they die, the successor trustee they select will distribute their remaining investments depending on the terms and conditions of the trust. In this way, their beneficiaries are able to avoid going through the probate process associated with wills.

If you want to leave your estate to your grandchildren, you can opt for generation skipping trusts. An asset protection trust can help you protect your investments, reduce your tax obligations and effectively define how your estate should be managed. An attorney can help you determine which kinds of trusts are appropriate for our needs.




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