Family trusts are a type of living trust, and they can be revocable or irrevocable depending on your wishes. For starters, a living trust is one that takes effect during your lifetime. A revocable trust can be altered or terminated at any time, while an irrevocable trust is permanent.
Revocable trusts are usually more common due to their flexibility, and the fact that most Americans' estates won't be subject to estate taxes. You may want to consider a revocable trust if: You want the transfer of your assets to your heirs to be private and avoid the probate process.
Testamentary Trusts
This type of trust can accomplish the following estate planning goals: Preserving assets for children from a previous marriage. Protecting a spouse's financial future by providing lifetime income. Ensuring that beneficiaries with special needs will be taken care of.
Family trusts are a type of living trust. It can be revocable or irrevocable, depending on the estate planning strategy you have in mind. Family trusts are designed to manage your assets on behalf of your beneficiaries.
The 5-Year Rule involves a meticulous review of financial transactions conducted by an individual seeking Medicaid within the five-year window. If any uncompensated transfer of assets is detected during this period, it triggers a penalty.
Q: Do trusts have a requirement to file federal income tax returns? A: Trusts must file a Form 1041, U.S. Income Tax Return for Estates and Trusts, for each taxable year where the trust has $600 in income or the trust has a non-resident alien as a beneficiary.
With an irrevocable trust, the transfer of assets is permanent. So once the trust is created and assets are transferred, they generally can't be taken out again. You can still act as the trustee but you'd be limited to withdrawing money only on an as-needed basis to cover necessary expenses.
Disadvantages of a Family Trust
You must prepare and submit legal documents, which the court charges a fee to process. The second financial disadvantage of a family trust is the lack of tax benefits, especially when it comes to filing income taxes. When the grantor dies, the trust must file a federal tax return.
A living trust can help you manage and pass on a variety of assets. However, there are a few asset types that generally shouldn't go in a living trust, including retirement accounts, health savings accounts, life insurance policies, UTMA or UGMA accounts and vehicles.
Revocable living trusts have a few key benefits, like avoiding probate, privacy protection and protection in the case of incapacitation. However, revocable living trusts can be expensive, don't have direct tax benefits, and don't protect against creditors.
You may want to put your house in an irrevocable trust if you need to lower your taxable estate for Medicaid eligibility or other income-restricted programs. Assets in an irrevocable trust usually cannot be claimed by a creditor, offering you asset protection in the event you need to repay someone.
Sometimes the best solution is a combination of a professional or corporate Trustee and a family member Trustee working together as co-trustees. The family member brings knowledge of the family situation, and the corporate trustee knows how to invest and maintain records.
If you don't have many assets, aren't married, and/or plan on leaving everything to your spouse, a will is perhaps all you need. On the other hand, a good rule of thumb is to consider a revocable living trust if your net worth is at least $100,000.
Suze Orman, the popular financial guru, goes so far as to say that “everyone” needs a revocable living trust.
Irrevocable trusts are generally set up to minimize estate taxes, access government benefits, and protect assets.
"To simplify it, revocable trusts are going to be for those who want to avoid probate. Irrevocable trusts are for those who want to avoid estate tax," says Erik M. Baskin, a CFP professional and founder of Baskin Financial Planning in Dayton, Ohio. The decision, however, is not always so definitive.
Not all bank accounts are suitable for a Living Trust. If you need regular access to an account, you may want to keep it in your name rather than the name of your Trust. Or, you may have a low-value account that won't benefit from being put in a Trust.
According to SmartAsset, the wealthiest households commonly use intentionally defective grantor trusts (IDGT) to reduce or eliminate estate, income and gift tax liability when passing on high-yielding assets like real estate to their heirs.
It really depends on your needs and the needs of your family. Generally, a trust is a faster, more efficient way to get your assets to your heirs but setting up a trust is often more expensive than creating a will. Well-planned estates often utilize both trusts and wills.
Including a family trust in your estate plan offers many advantages. Avoid probate: Unlike wills, trusts typically don't have to go through probate, and your assets transfer to beneficiaries quickly and smoothly, without the time and expense that probate involves.
A trust helps an estate avoid taxes and probate. It can protect assets from creditors and dictate the terms of inheritance for beneficiaries. The disadvantages of trusts are that they require time and money to create, and they cannot be easily revoked.
Keeping it in the Family
A family trust can provide long term financial support for your children or grandchildren, allowing you to invest in their long-term education and distribute family assets to future generations.
A trustee can absolutely steal from a family Trust. To be clear, a trustee cannot take funds from the Trust for themselves directly. Instead, they will find loopholes so that the funds from the trust are dispersed in a way that benefits them.
Upon the grantor's death, the trustee continues managing the irrevocable trust or distributes the assets according to the trust's terms. Unlike a will, an irrevocable trust avoids probate, often expediting the asset distribution process and making it an appealing option for some families.
It seems funny, but the assets in any trust are owned by the trust and managed by the trustee, for the benefit of the beneficiary(s). The question of who owns the assets in an irrevocable trust is no different: the trust owns the assets. Under the law a trust is considered its "own person", and may own assets.