Recoverable Trusts & Estate Taxes
By Ken Bloom, J.D., LLM
Revocable Living Trusts ("Trust") have become popular estate planning tools. There are
several benefits to establishing a Trust. Whether a Trust is right for you, however,
depends on a number of factors.
A Trust is an arrangement in which one person who manages it for another's benefit holds
legal title to property. A Trust can be set up to benefit the person who created it (known
as the grantor), beneficiaries named by that person, or both. A Trust is set up during your
lifetime, to which you transfer most or all of your assets. You receive the income from
the Trust, and also have the right to withdraw principal. You can revoke
the Trust at any time during your life. At death the Trust becomes irrevocable and its
income and assets are disposed of under terms specified by you in the Trust papers.
Why would you do this? The main advantage of the Trust is that its assets are distributed
without going through the probate court process. That avoids attorney fees and filing fees
for the probate court. To avoid probate, all probate assets must be included in the Trust.
Assets that are owned jointly with the right of survivorship (your home for instance) and
assets that have a beneficiary designation (an IRA for example) are not subject to probate
provided the joint tenant or beneficiary survive you.
Assets that are not "owned" by the trust at the time of your death (with the exception of
assets owned jointly with the right of survivorship and assets that have a beneficiary
designation) will require a probate proceeding to transfer these assets into the Trust.
Depending on the size of the estate it may be necessary to prepare an estate tax return,
valuing and transferring assets, and making a formal accounting and settlement.
Many people wrongly assume that probate is avoided if they have established a trust.
Unless your assets have been properly transferred into the trust a probate proceeding will
be necessary upon your death.
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