When it comes to estate planning, it’s important to pick the plan that is best for you. Even if your estate is small, creating a plan for how it will be passed after your death is crucial, especially if you don’t want your family to go through confusion with the courts about who gets what. A trust is a type of plan you can get, and these are the top reasons you might consider creating one.
Keep Control Over Your Estate
A trust is about giving someone else control over your estate for the benefit of a beneficiary. Known as the trustee, the person you give this responsibility to is able to carry out your wishes after you pass. The benefit of making a trust means you know exactly what is going to happen to your property after you die. For example, if you want a beneficiary to receive only a small amount of a large investment at a time, you can make sure the trustee knows that. A trust also makes it easier for those with a lot of money and many beneficiaries.
Avoid Creditors for Your Family
When a person passes away, any remaining debts they have can be collected through their remaining estate. Creditors may come looking to pay off debt by taking assets, property or investments. A trust protects the deceased’s property from creditors, ensuring more gets passed onto beneficiaries. In addition, it can prevent beneficiaries from spending the money unwisely.
Skip Probate
Probate is the long and tedious process of dealing out a person’s estate after death. It can be incredibly time consuming and cost a lot of money, especially if there is any confusion over who is receiving parts of the estate. Certain kinds of trusts allow you to avoid the probate process altogether if you have put the right funds into it. This is one reason that planning is so important for any estate plan, trust or otherwise.
Donate To Your Favorite Charities
If you so choose, you can donate some of your assets to charity through a trust. Setting up this plan in advance ensures your favorite charities receive donations.
Discuss your estate plan with a lawyer and see if a trust is the right choice for you. Some people benefit from trusts more than others, and you may discover an even better plan. A lawyer can guide you through the tricky aspects of your state laws and make sure your estate is on the right path. If you have questions about estate planning, contact an estate planning lawyer in Cypress, TX, like the offices of Winfrey Law Firm for a consultation.