When planning your estate, a vital estate document which is the living trust is required. Living trust forms the bases of how your estates are shared or given to beneficiaries. It also dictates what happens to your estate when you die and who makes certain financial or medical decisions for you when you are mentally incapable.
A living trust is an estate planning document which helps you place all your estate property into a trust while you are alive, and allows you to transfer your assets to desired beneficiaries while you are still alive or even when you pass on. When forming a living trust, the beneficiaries named in this document is called a successor trustee and you, the guarantor.
Several estate plans can be documented and implemented in living trust. Estate planning is a process of making many important decisions and plans over your future and that of your loved ones. specifically, estate plans, concerns what happen to your assets both while you are alive and well or dead, how you want to share your assets to family, children or spouse, who takes over making certain important decisions for you in cases of mental incapability and lastly transfer of ownership of a property.
Although, there are several estate plan document, such as last Will and testament, living trust, durable power of attorney and advance medical directive.
It is however important to plan with a Staten Island trust attorney who knows the state laws as well as the mandated inclusion and formalities allowed for any estate plan document. This is due to the regulation and law in which state laws rules over any estate plan.
There are various types of trust, but majorly the irrevocable and revocable living trust, other types of trust are the special need trust or the spendthrift trust. These two however can still be placed into the irrevocable and revocable trust.
Revocable living trust
A revocable living trust is a legal entity created to hold the ownership of an individual assets. A revocable living trust covers three phases of the trust maker’s life; mainly while he is alive, possible incapacitation and what happens to his estate after his death.
While the trust maker is alive, the revocable living trust documents ensures that the trust maker own, control and invest in his assets or estate. While also planning for any incapacitation the living trust document should contain a named successor, someone who would step in and take over management of the estates, make medical decisions as well as financial decisions.
An irrevocable living trust
An irrevocable trust is a trust document that files, established and implemented while the trustier is still alive. Just like the name implies, type of trust is irrevocable and are permanent so that the trust once funded is no longer in the possession of the trustier.
An irrevocable living trust allows you see that the properties are well transferred to the intended benefactor while you are still alive. Furthermore, it also help you evaluate and supervise the current state of the estate to ensure that their assets are in good hands.
For the sake of permanency of trust, an irrevocable trust ensure the agreement stays the same and unchanged.
With a Living Trust you can avoid Probate
One of the benefits of living trust in Long Island is that it avoids probate even while a valid and clearly written will still go through a court proceeding for your assets to be distributed to the beneficiaries according to your wishes. Once the assets has been transferred into the trust they will not be considered part of your estate and will not be subject to probate.
Living Trust Avoid excessive taxes
This is another important reason for establishing a trust. Under the IRS law, the only trust that avoids estate taxes is the irrevocable living trust. The reason is that the property no longer belongs to the original trust maker.
Living trust is different from a will
A living trust is different from will. This distinction can be seen in the way each documents are executed and their benefits. Living trust are legal documents through which you place your assets for protection and also easy transfer of estate to appointed beneficiary called the successor trustee. A will however, is a written legal documents with a plan to distribute your assets upon your death.