My in-laws want to set up a trust, I don't have the details, yet.

I know we have a trust guy here [heavyd, IIRC], but didn't know if they did things outside of the gun trusts.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: P250UA5,

What state do they live in? Probably won't help but our daughter works for a Trust and Estate law firm in NC.

My financial guy kept encouraging me to set up a trust. When I eventually yielded he made it easy for me. He set up a meeting with a good local Trust attorney, a guy from the Trust department of my bank, himself, and me.

For preparation, I made a document stating the percentage of my assets for each of my legatees. All finished in one meeting.

On my demise, the Trust department of my bank will liquidate my physical assets (principally my house, car, and their contents). My heirs will have nothing to do except scatter my ashes over my parent’s graves.

quote:

Originally posted by Appliance Brad:
What state do they live in? Probably won't help but our daughter works for a Trust and Estate law firm in NC.

TX with some beneficiaries possibly in CA

It’s been awhile since we set ours up and I don’t think I can adequately provide good information on the benefits of one. I’m confused by your statement that your in-laws want to set one up. Why does that impact you? As I understood a trust, it’s primary benefit is to protect family assets, your family assets, from the vagaries of divorce (for one thing) and personal injury claims. I’m hard put to see the benefit of entering into a family trust with those who are family by marriage. Others smarter than I should be able to set us both straight. Otherwise, yeah, a family trust is a good thing.

I am not a lawyer, but I do have experience with failed trusts as well as setting up our own.

No matter how good or bad a trust is, it is nothing until assets are titled into it. I presume this is an estate document to pass the in-laws' assets to heirs upon their death. A good trust attorney will provide good instruction on what to re-title and what not to (e.g. motor vehicles are frequently left out of trusts to avoid the appearance of wealth in case of a collision). Our attorney filed the paperwork to have the house retitled into our trust. We did the bank accounts, non-retirement accounts, etc.

Anything with a beneficiary, such as a 401k or IRA, may need to have the Trust named as beneficiary, though they should discuss it with their attorney in consideration of their specific desires. Existing life insurance can name the trust as beneficiary but probably cannot be retitled to the trust now. New life insurance might be able to be owned by the trust.

I suggest they keep the original document in a fireproof safe somewhere that the Trustee or Executor can access it. Not in a safe deposit box! The bank will shut down access to the box upon the death of the owner. Physical and electronic copies can be given to trusted family/heirs but only the original will be official.

Keep in mind situations such as what happens after the first spouse dies. If the survivor gets remarried, how to protect the original family. e.g. Dad dies, mom remarries. New husband diverts or squanders Mom's assets. Or, mom dies and the new husband inherits assets never put into the trust. Our trust divests 50% of the assets to our heirs upon the first spouse's death. We are a 2nd marriage, so this provision protects my kids and her kids for at least half the assets no matter if the survivor remarries and the new spouse steals the remainder.

The trust attorney should be able to advise how to structure their Trust to ensure their wishes are followed.

There should be a "pour-over will" in addition to the trust, which says basically everything not in the trust is to go into the trust.

I've done a couple of trusts for family members here in Illinois. Both very simple: no businesses, no real estate except a home, no complex assets.

Trusts are state specific. There are assets that should go in the trust, assets that shouldn't go in the trust, and assets that can't go in the trust.

Some people will say that trusts are simple and can be easily prepared without an attorney by using something like Quicken WillMaker & Trust. I think that would be a mistake. Consult a competent attorney. It will cost more because their time and expertise is worth it.

Heavyd has done a will for me as well as gun trusts.

My late wife years ago encouraged me to work with her to set up a family trust in Va. It was pretty straight forward. When I moved to SC for retirement, the situation became much more complicated--due to the legal requirements for any number of estate-related issues. Legal requirements can differ significantly from state to state. My first indication that I was in a different legal environment was when I went to the DMV to get my new DL and to register my car. An unbelievable number of people were there to title their automobiles in a trust. Fortunately, I found an excellent estate law firm to work with. Even the language of medical directives had to conform with laws enacted in SC, not Virginia.

I had a trust created when I lived in California (absolute shit probate laws) and I was going with my church into a UN war zone.

When I moved here, the trust was about 10 years old so I asked JHE for a recommendation. He recommended an estate attorney who had done about 400 of them and he updated to Texas laws as well as made it modern.

I was a bank trust officer for 3 decades. For info in setting up a trust the above advice on getting a lawyer in the state the trusters reside is spot on.

If you want to know what happens when the trust is in place, how they will work, how much contact you can expect, usual costs I can certainly offer a hand.
If you choose to have that chat we can do it here or email. My address is in my profile.

Happy to help.

quote:

Originally posted by shoevb:
Heavyd has done a will for me as well as gun trusts.

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:
I had a trust created when I lived in California (absolute shit probate laws) and I was going with my church into a UN war zone.

When I moved here, the trust was about 10 years old so I asked JHE for a recommendation. He recommended an estate attorney who had done about 400 of them and he updated to Texas laws as well as made it modern.

Thanks, I'll shoot both an email.

I have had close contact with three trusts. None of them worked the way they were supposed to. The administrator of the trust has to be honest and capable or it turns into a big mess. When money or possessions are involved, greed seems to sneak in and the courts can be surprisingly ineffective in helping straighten it out even when it is carefully worded.

quote:

Originally posted by Appliance Brad:
What state do they live in? Probably won't help but our daughter works for a Trust and Estate law firm in NC.

Send me her contact information, if you would.

We did ours in 2018. Done in NV and promised to be good wherever we moved.
Our attorney packaged in all the living will and other documents.
Ours has a Will within the trust that can be modified at any time.
The big benefit is that at the time of our passing our heirs are not subject to the Probate process.
We are currently in month 11 of Probate on the MIL's estate. So, I can confirm that benefit alone is reason enough to set up the trust.
It's a little bit of a PITA to get everything like the house titled and into the trust but well worth it in the long haul.

quote:

Originally posted by Powers77:
The big benefit is that at the time of our passing our heirs are not subject to the Probate process.
We are currently in month 11 of Probate on the MIL's estate. So, I can confirm that benefit alone is reason enough to set up the trust.

My father's estate took over 4 years to probate in NYC! It was a "small estate" (under $100k) and should have been trivial for the court. But they put in delays and obstacles at every opportunity, which ate up all but $500 of the assets in legal expenses!

quote:

Originally posted by Fly-Sig:
My father's estate took over 4 years to probate in NYC! It was a "small estate" (under $100k) and should have been trivial for the court. But they put in delays and obstacles at every opportunity, which ate up all but $500 of the assets in legal expenses!

Absolutely disgusting. Just one of the many reasons I have no desire to set foot in that Sh!thole.

I have responded to the OP.

Trusts are often thought to be a panacea for many financial matters. They can be useful, and there are other situations in which they offer no advantages or even disadvantages. Many people think they know a lot more about this than they actually do. There are a lot of mistaken ideas about trusts among laymen.

TALK TO A ESTATE PLANNING LAWYER IN YOUR STATE!

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:
I have responded to the OP.

Trusts are often thought to be a panacea for many financial matters. They can be useful, and there are other situations in which they offer no advantages or even disadvantages. Many people think they know a lot more about this than they actually do. There are a lot of mistaken ideas about trusts among laymen.

TALK TO A ESTATE PLANNING LAWYER IN YOUR STATE!

Thanks for the referral jhe, will forward that along to them

Wife and I have a revocable trust because I signed up for legal service one year with HR during open enrollment it was like $20 a paycheck and I got a $3k trust and estate plan out of it. If prepaid legal is an option with benefits look into it.

Our house and a joint checking and joint brokerage account is vested in it. We also have non IRA assets outside the trust I should ask my attorney if we should make the IRA benny the trust or not. It helps avoid probate.

My grandparents had a trust from the 70’s and never updated. The last one passed in 2015 and the trust was interesting. They never updated the dollar amounts. My Mom and aunt were sole bennies but there was instructions each of 4 grandkid got $5k. And church they attended for 60+ years got $5k. Their estate was well over $1mm at death. Im sure they thought in 1976 when the last grandchild arrived $5k was a generous amount and when i received my check it was nice but was not life changing in any way. I bought a Rolex and think of my grandparents everytime I wear it.

If you have FU money net worth you need serious legal advice and help. I have had clients who were legit trust fund babies from parents or grandparents and got a serious allowance every year from the trust. Like 6+ digits. Some were bums and some were successful despite the trust income. But it helped with college and a home purchase. We’d have to get documentation from the trustees to verify it. If granting a loan.

Lastly if you have some wealth and you have a special needs child or grandchild you want to take care of and they are collecting government benefits, an inheritance may screw them up so they will need a special needs trust created to avoid those assets coming to them. See a lawyer in your state if this scenario applies to you.