Showing posts with label Trust. Show all posts

Friday, September 21, 2018

Estate planning success: Privacy prevails as few details emerge regarding estates of Reynolds, Miller

Estate planning success: Privacy prevails as few details emerge regarding estates of Reynolds, Miller

by Tom Alberts Sep 21, 2018

Summary: Following the recent deaths of actor Burt Reynolds and rapper Mac Miller, few details have emerged regarding their estates. The wills of both celebrities have been filed in court, but they disclose little more than the names of personal representatives and the fact that both men utilized trusts to hold their assets. Because the news media have been unable to report details about their wealth and who stands to inherit their assets, the privacy they've maintained can be considered an estate planning success story. It's a stark contrast to the situation of the late Aretha Franklin, whose lack of estate planning has left her financial affairs and beneficiaries exposed to public scrutiny.

There's not much mystery surrounding the recent deaths of rapper Mac Miller and actor Burt Reynolds. Miller, 26, died of a suspected drug overdose. Reynolds, 82, succumbed to a heart attack.

Given their fame and the news media's appetite to report as many intimate details about celebrities as possible, it's no surprise that soon after the wills of Miller and Reynolds were filed in court and became public documents, the headlines trumpeted the latest developments.

“Mac Miller left a will behind, but who will his estate go to?” says the banner atop USA Today's story about the filing of Miller's testamentary statement, teasing the reader with the prospect of a looming mystery.

People.com heralded its own devoid-of-details scoop: “Burt Reynolds left his only son out of his will and created a trust for him instead,” the headline reads, hinting at something nefarious. The article then enlightens us that the actor's assets “appear to be in the trust.” Put another way, none of Reynolds' assets “appeared” or were listed in his publicly accessible probate file. The reporter proceeds to speculate the purpose of the trust may be “designed to get around estate taxes.”

In the article about Miller, USA Today reveals his will specifies the name of the executor of his estate and that Miller had established a trust to hold his assets. The article concedes “it is unclear who is labeled as a trustee. It is also unclear how much Miller's estate is worth.” We do learn from Miller's will is that he named a personal representative to manage his estate. Beyond that, the report doesn't provide much clarity about Miller's financial affairs and who stands to get what and when.

Reynolds' will is just as unhelpful to media curiosity. The document is scant on juicy details, but we do learn the “Smokey and the Bandit” star appointed his niece as personal representative for his estate. It also shows that Reynolds followed standard procedure by stating his intentional omission of his son, Quentin, in the will because “I have provided for him during my lifetime in my Declaration of Trust.” The will identifies Quentin as a trust beneficiary, and it's common practice to state that fact in the will so there are no misunderstandings about his status as an heir that could lead to a legal dispute.

Did Reynolds create a trust to avoid estate taxes? Maybe so. But it's just as likely Reynolds wanted to avoid reporters sharing private details about his estate with the rest of the world. Similarly, the report on Miller suggests the popular rapper didn't provide clarity in his will. Indeed, the document doesn't state the value of his estate or include names of the successor trustee appointed to manage his trust.

What does seem quite clear, however, is that both celebrities sought to keep details of their finances and beneficiaries discreet and out of the gossip columns. Even famous entertainers have the right to privacy regarding their financial assets and the identities of the people and organizations who stand to benefit from their wealth and generosity.

Clearly, Miller and Reynolds followed the advice of their lawyers, who know that information in a will about assets left to heirs is a matter of public record. Trusts, however, are not considered part of the probate estate, and their provisions are shielded from public disclosure.

For both celebrities, it seems their estate plans are less of a mystery and more of a mission accomplished. They have in common a successful quest to keep the public guessing. From an estate planning standpoint, their efforts to maintain privacy have prevailed over prying eyes.

For Aretha Franklin, privacy not respected

For fellow celebrity Aretha Franklin, who died Aug. 16, 2018, privacy was a paramount concern, but her lack of estate planning has backfired.

Franklin was well-known for keeping her personal affairs under wraps during her lifetime. According to media reports, the Queen of Soul kept her pancreatic cancer secret for a decade and never discussed her illness in public. Her biographer told People.com that Franklin was “not atypical in her privacy, she's just extreme.”

Nonetheless, Franklin's attorney told reporters his client rebuffed attempts for her to draft a will and create a trust to shield her assets from probate. Instead, Franklin died intestate (without a will), and the distribution of her estate worth an estimated $80 million and her heirs are being determined based on a generic hierarchy of succession established by state law. Meanwhile, details of her estate and the probate proceedings are forever part of the public record and under a permanent spotlight.

Conclusion

Anyone who values privacy, from regular Joes to movie stars and recording artists, can take action to cloak the details of their estates and maintain the privacy of their beneficiaries. By utilizing estate planning tools, such as revocable living trusts, during your lifetime, you can keep your affairs out of the limelight whether it glares from the national media, nosy neighbors or even greedy predators.

There are numerous options and scenarios to consider when developing an estate plan that protects your legacy and achieves your objectives, and important decisions should be made with the advice of qualified lawyers and financial experts. Membership with Legacy Assurance Plan provides members with valuable resources and guidance to develop comprehensive estate plans that take life's contingencies into consideration and leave a positive impact for generations to come. Legacy Assurance Plan members also receive peace of mind that a team of trusted, experienced professionals will assist them in developing legal, financial and tax strategies that will meet their needs today and for years to come through periodic reviews.

This article is published by the Legacy Assurance Plan and is intended for general informational purposes only. Some information may not apply to your situation. It does not, nor is it intended, to constitute legal advice. You should consult with an attorney regarding any specific questions about probate, living probate or other estate planning matters. Legacy Assurance Plan is an estate planning services-company and is not a lawyer or law firm and is not engaged in the practice of law. For more information about this and other estate planning matters visit our website at www.legacyassuranceplan.com.

This article written and published by:
Legacy Assurance Plan
8039 Cooper Creek Blvd
University Park, Florida 34201
844.306.5272 (Phone)
info@legacyassuranceplan.com (email)
#legacyassuranceplan
@assuranceplan

Thursday, April 27, 2017

Trust Funding and Your Periodic Estate Plan Review

Summary: The end of the calendar year (and the beginning of the following year) can be a great time to review many things related to your estate and financial plans. In addition to reviewing life-event changes, and their impact on your plan, this time is also an excellent opportunity to review your assets and ensure that all of the assets that should be transferred into your living trust are, in fact, funded. Whether they are existing or newly-purchased assets, now is always a good time to make certain that your trust is properly equipped to do the job you created it to do.

Revocable living trusts have the potential to be extremely useful and helpful tools serving a vital role in a complete estate plan. A living trust is a lot like a car. A car can do amazing things if it is properly prepared to operate and maintained. If you do not fill a vehicle with gasoline, oil, brake fluid or engine coolant, it doesn’t matter how amazing your car is – it won’t run. If you don’t keep your car maintained, it may run perfectly at first but will eventually reach a point where it stops running right or maybe even malfunctions completely.

Your trust must be similarly prepared to do its job. While your car needs gasoline in it, your trust needs assets inside it to do its job. To maximize the benefits of your trust, both in terms of protecting your privacy along with avoiding delays and legal/court costs, you have to minimize the assets that go through probate. This means accomplishing all the tasks you need to do to transfer (or “fund”) your wealth into your trust. Your trust’s distribution instructions can only govern assets that you’ve properly transferred to the trust’s control. Your trust’s probate-avoidance advantages only apply if the trust legally owns your assets so that the assets can remain outside your probate estate.

Do not misunderstand – you do not need to fund ALL of your assets into your trust. Indeed, there are certain assets for which it might be disadvantageous to fund them into your trust. Retirement accounts like 401k accounts and IRAs are an example. For these assets, of course, there are other ways to ensure they avoid probate as they have their own death beneficiary designations attached to them. For most assets, though, if your plan includes a living trust, that will be the vehicle you’ll use for avoiding probate and protecting your privacy.

Given what an important task this is, it is important to make sure you’ve done it right and that it remains up to date. This is yet another reason to engage in routine estate planning “check-ups.” While your annual year-end plan review can allow you to assess what life event changes have occurred in your life recently (and what type of estate plan changes might be needed due to them,) it is also a great time to assess your assets and your trust funding. Have you bought any new assets this year? If so, have you completed the necessary steps to ensure that those assets are now transferred to the trust?

Have you sold anything? If yes, have you analyzed what affect this might have on your trust distributions? Perhaps you sold your Florida beachfront condo for cash. If your trust says that your condo went to your daughter, but also says that all cash accounts are to be split equally between your three children, then this sale has changed the nature of your distributions (your daughter saw a reduction in her inheritance as a result of the sale.) If that wasn’t a goal of yours, you may want to consider making a matching change to your distribution scheme.

This article written and published by:

Legacy Assurance Plan

8039 Cooper Creek Blvd

University Park, Florida 34201

844.306.5272 (Phone)

info@legacyassuranceplan.com (email)

@assuranceplan

#legacyassuranceplan

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Monday, April 3, 2017

Guardianship Abuse | How you can Protect Yourself

Summary: Courts, legislatures and attorneys general are continuing to come face-to-face with the ongoing scourge that is the misuse of guardianship legal proceedings in order to abuse seniors. While this abuse can often involve the loss of a senior's personal autonomy, it also often involves financial abuse, as well. There are certain things seniors can do to protect themselves, especially when it comes to estate planning. But taking pro-active steps to to put a complete estate plan into place, you can better protect yourself from the possibility of someone using the legal system against in order to seize control of your wealth.

Another state is taking on the monumental task of trying to reform its system of adult guardianship and conservatorship. In this case, that state, as reported by the Associated Press in October 2016, is Nevada. That pursuit of reform came on the heels of a 15-month study into the system, which revealed far too many stories of "'abuse, fear and distrust' in the program." The state's Attorney General, who also promised to attack the problem, promised to do what his office could to prevent guardians from swindling the people they were supposed to be protecting.

The "flash point" that helped trigger this action was series of newspaper reports in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, which exposed a considerable amount of this abuse that was going on. "Some of the cases were just horrible to read," Barbara Buckley, the executive director of the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada, told the newspaper. "Individuals in this situation are being stripped of their civil liberties, the right to run their life as they see fit, without anyone speaking to them or advocating on their behalf."

Other states have discovered similar problems and have sought to put reforms into place to stop this abuse. One of the earliest sources splotlighting this problem of guardianship abuse was a book entitled, "The Retirement Nightmare," by Diane G. Armstrong. Originally published, in 2000, Armstrong's book sounded the alarm regarding how this previously relatively little-known part of the legal system was being abused to strip away seniors' rights and wealth.

In her book, Armstrong outlined several vital, and easy, steps people can take to reduce or eliminate their risk of being the subject of an unwanted and unneeded guardianship proceeding. Although the author published her book 16 years ago, her advice when it comes to estate planning is just as useful today as it was in 2000. First, Armstrong recommends "working with the right attorney." This of course, is key. An attorney experienced in the law of estate planning can give a full picture of the legal options available to you for your estate and make helpful recommendations regarding what estate planning tools will (or won't) help you achieve your planning objectives.

In her second and third points, Armstrong highlights executing the proper legal documents to carry out your planning goals. These documents, which make up a complete estate plan, include a will, a power of attorney for financial decisions, a power of attorney for healthcare decisions, a living will. Depending on your situation, you plan may also include a revocable living trust.

A living trust is often best-known for its potential benefits when it comes to avoiding probate. But a living trust may also offer a degree of protection when it comes to an involuntary guardianship, as well. Sometimes, people go to court asking a judge to declare your mentally incompetent and appoint someone to manage your assets (often known as a conservator or guardian of the estate,) in order to take the control of your assets away from you and put it in their hands. A living trust may help you avoid this potential pitfall. Your properly funded living trust may be able to help even if this were to happen. That's because, in your revocable living trust, you likely named yourself as the initial trustee and named one (or hopefully multiple) successor trustee(s,) whom the trust stated would take over managing the trust if you died or were declared incompetent. Therefore, even if a judge did make such a declaration, all that would happen in your case is that the management of your assets would pass from you to the person you named as your successor trustee when you signed your trust document.

This article written and published by:

Legacy Assurance Plan

8039 Cooper Creek Blvd

University Park, Florida 34201

844.306.5272 (Phone)

info@legacyassuranceplan.com (email)

@assuranceplan

#legacyassuranceplan

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Thursday, March 30, 2017

Joint Tenancy With Right of Survivorship | Possibly a Risky Proposition

Summary: There are many techniques that can help you avoid the potential costs and delays of probate. Just because all of these techniques can be entirely effective at avoiding probate does not, however, mean that they are all equal. With some of these techniques, the benefits of probate avoidance come with a downside of greater risks -- risks that your planning goals may be stymied, or that plan could end up requiring costly and time-consuming court litigation to sort out.

Joint tenancy with right of survivorship (JTWROS) accounts, as well as pay-on-death or transfer-on-death accounts, can be wonderfully useful tools in some situations. Sometimes, they can even make up a helpful part of your overall estate planning. In certain circumstances, they can be a simple and low-maintenance way ensure that your assets pass to your desired beneficiaries without the hassles, costs and delays of probate administration. However, in many other situations, they can be risky. They pose the potential of having your money wind up in the hands of people other than the ones you wanted or, only less problematically, requiring expensive and stressful court litigation in order to get your wealth to the beneficiaries that you wanted to have it.

Take, for example, a case decided by the courts in September 2016. The case involved the estate of man named John, who was a senior in declining health in the final years of his life. He had both a checking account and a savings account. He had several people listed on his checking account as authorized signors. They included, in addition to John, his daughter, a grandson and the grandson's wife. On the savings account, authorized signors included John, the daughter and the grandson's wife.

The problems arose shortly after John died. First, the grandson withdrew $22,000 from John's checking account. The grandson's wife then withdrew nearly $26,000 from John's savings account. This sum of almost $48,000 represented roughly 50% of the total amount in the two accounts combined. The couple claimed that they were entitled to the money because the accounts were joint accounts with right of surviviorship. In an account that is truly a JTWROS, all of the "tenants," or owners of the account, have equal claims to the account's assets in the event of the death of the account holders.

Using these types of accounts as a probate-avoidance technique can be harmful in some situations. They can potentially put your wealth at risk if the person you've added to your account decides to use the account funds for his own purposes, rather than your goals. Alternately, even if the person you've added to your account is above reproach, your assets could still be at risk if that person divorces or is successfully sued by someone.

In John's case, the problem was a lack of clarity. If the account truly was a JTWROS asset, then the grandson and his wife had the legal right to withdraw the funds that they withdrew. However, John's daughter, in her lawsuit, claimed that the grandson and wife were not joint tenants; they were only added to John's accounts as signatories as a convenience to John. Ultimately, the courts sided with the daughter. The trial court ruled that the grandson and wife didn't have any evidence to show that John intended for the money in his checking and savings to pass to the daughter, grandson and grandson's wife as a JTWROS account would. If the outcome reached by the courts was not what John intended, then at least some of the objectives of his estate plan were frustrated. Even if the outcome did reflect John's goals for the money in his checking and savings, it took an expensive and time-consuming court battle to achieve this end.

Careful planning can potentially help you avoid an unfavorable situation like what happened with this man's estate. There are ways to create a plan that will take the guesswork out of your planning goals. One example is a revocable living trust, which can allow you to dictate, with great specificity, exactly what you want to achieve with regard to each of your assets and each of your beneficiaries. In addition to this, it can also benefit you by avoiding probate while also sidestepping some of the risks involved with other probate-avoidance techniques like JTWROS accounts.

This article written and published by:

Legacy Assurance Plan

8039 Cooper Creek Blvd

University Park, Florida 34201

844.306.5272 (Phone)

info@legacyassuranceplan.com (email)

@assuranceplan

#legacyassuranceplan

Click Below To See Other Legacy Assurance Plan Related Sites:

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https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCx9HBYFIYdohfnrfW_XRkIQ

Monday, March 27, 2017

Trust Funding | You’ve Created Your Estate Plan With a Revocable Living Trust… Now What?

Summary: Proper estate planning is a process, not just a single task. Rather than being a single step, estate planning is more like an ongoing journey. Just because you have set up and executed a set of estate planning documents, that doesn’t mean your estate planning is “done.” This is especially true if you have a plan with a revocable living trust. Once you’ve put your signature on all of your documents, including your living trust, there are beneficial things you can begin doing almost right away to ensure that your plan will be properly maintained.

One of the first things you can do, if you haven’t begun already, is put together a list of all your assets. You’ll need to list both your titled assets (like your home and vehicles, for example,) as well as your personal property (like furniture, jewelry and collectibles.) You’ll need each of these lists for two different reasons. For assets like real estate, vehicles and financial accounts, you will need to make certain that they are funded by executing the proper paperwork establishing that you have transferred ownership of that asset from you as an individual to you as the trustee of your trust. Of course, this means that one of the first things you’ll need to do after you’ve finished compiling your list is obtaining all of your current ownership documents, such as the deeds to all of your real estate properties and the titles to all of your vehicles.

For your real estate, funding means obtaining a deed from an attorney putting the transfer into legal effect. For your vehicles, funding entails a trip to the DMV and re-titling the auto. For your financial accounts, the institution where you hold your account(s) probably has their own special proprietary paperwork they’ll require you to fill out to complete the transfer.

When it comes to your personal property, especially specific items that you want to specifically distribute to a particular beneficiary, your list will be especially helpful in making certain these assets get funded, too. They get funded a bit differently, however, since they don’t have deeds, titles or other ownership paperwork. These assets get listed in a special place in your trust, which is usually referred as “Schedule A,” “Appendix A” or something similar. Listing these assets in your trust’s schedule is a means of putting down in writing your intent to transfer them from you to your trust, where they can be distributed in accordance with the special instructions you’ve laid out in your trust document.

A popular self-help book from the 1990s advised, “Don’t sweat the small stuff.” That may be true in a lot of areas, but not when it comes to funding your trust. Here, you want to be more like Santa Claus, as in “making a list and checking it twice” in order to be sure you’ve not left anything out. Do you hold an ownership interest in a business like an LLC, partnership or corporation? These assets can potentially be transferred into your trust, depending on the business’s operating agreement or articles of incorporation. Do you hold any copyrights, patents or trademarks? The appropriate government office (the U.S. Copyright Office or the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office) have transfer forms. Additionally, if someone owes you money (whether from a loan or a legal judgment,) you can create a document that says that you are transferring, or assigning, your right to collect that debt to your trust.

This article written and published by:

Legacy Assurance Plan

8039 Cooper Creek Blvd

University Park, Florida 34201

844.306.5272 (Phone)

info@legacyassuranceplan.com (email)

@assuranceplan

#legacyassuranceplan

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Thursday, March 23, 2017

Revocable Living Trust | Your Estate Plan Can Protect You in Many Ways, Some of Which May Surprise You

Summary: Many people are aware that some forms of estate planning can offers a certain type of protection as one of their benefits; namely, protection. But they may also do more. They may protect you from the potential costs and delays of probate administration, they may protect you from the loss of privacy deriving from having the details of your estate become public record, they may possibly protect you from potentially unnecessary and stressful conservatorships proceedings in court, and they may even potentially protect you from claims by people professing to be your heirs who were left out of your plan. Properly drafted and implemented, a complete estate plan can do many things for you and your family, probably even more than you would have thought.

A lot of people who are familiar with estate planning know that you can plan to avoid probate. Planning to avoid probate can help save you time, money and stress, as probate administration can be drawn out and expensive. An estate plan with a revocable living trust isn't the only way to avoid probate administration, but an estate plan with a living trust and its companion, the "pour over" will, can accomplish several other ends that may have great value for you.

This form of planning may also protect your privacy. In many locations, probate administration case files are public record, meaning that anyone potentially can look at the contents of your estate simply by requesting your estate's file from the court clerk. If, however, your wealth is funded into a living trust, you avoid this as, in most states, living trusts and the distribution of their assets are not matters of public record and their details cannot be accessed by anyone with a file number. In addition, a plan with a properly funded living trust may be able to reduce the possibility of needing to go to court to seek appointment of a conservator to make financial decisions on your behalf should you become mentally incapacitated and be unable to make decisions for yourself. With a living trust, the management of your funded assets transfers seamlessly from you to the successor trustee you chose if you become incapacitated.

However, your estate plan with a living trust may provide you with an additional protection that is not as well known: protection against people claiming to be your long-lost children in order to get a portion of your wealth. Generally, the law assumes that all parents want to leave something to all of their children. So, in general, the laws have a default inheritance for children. This means that, if someone who isn’t in your will goes to court claiming to be your child, and the judge rules that they are legally your child, then they may get a “cut” of your estate.

In some states, though, that rule applies only to a person’s probate estate. Oklahoma, for example, has explicitly ruled that these “pretermitted heirs” rights to a distribution do not extend to the assets funded into a living trust. In other words, if someone files a court claim alleging that they are your long-lost “love child,” and you have a fully funded living trust, then it doesn’t matter what the court decides about that person’s parentage, they still cannot take anything from your trust.

All this goes to show that proper estate planning, including the possibility of incorporating a living trust into your plan, has many potential benefits and multiple ways in which your plan can be a value protector to both you and your family.

This article written and published by:

Legacy Assurance Plan

8039 Cooper Creek Blvd

University Park, Florida 34201

844.306.5272 (Phone)

info@legacyassuranceplan.com (email)

@assuranceplan

#legacyassuranceplan

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Friday, December 30, 2016

Estate Planning | Famed Coach's Tragic Death and the Lessons It Imparts to Everyone

Summary: When Hall-of-Fame basketball coach Pat Summitt died in June 2016, her family, friends and players grieved a lost loved one and sports fans honored a lost legend. However, the coach's premature death has served some good, in terms of both raising awareness about Alzheimer's disease and imparting estate planning knowledge to everyone -- namely, that estate planning is not just for the elderly and planning for incapacity is important for everyone, regardless of age and health

In the Spring of 2011, Pat Summitt's University of Tennessee women's basketball team completed another season undefeated in conference play and earned a Number-1 seed in the NCAA basketball tournament. Summitt, the winningest coach in NCAA basketball history, was 58. The following August, she announced that she had early-onset Alzheimer's disease and retired from coaching after only one more season. By June 2016, Summitt had died at the age of 64. Summitt's battle with the disease and death at an early age remind us both how little we (including medical experts) really know about Alzheimer's and how important it is to get a complete estate plan in place without procrastination.

Your estate plan can do so much more than just distribute your assets after you die. While that is an important and integral part of any estate plan (as it allows you to assert control over your legacy rather than leaving it up to your state's intestacy laws,) there are other major benefits of a well-thought out plan, too. One of these is planning for incapacity. With people living longer than ever, the chances that you will need to have a plan in place for your mental incapacity are greater than ever.

Whether you experience Alzheimer's or other forms of dementia, you can retain a form of control over your wealth and yourself, even after a loss of capacity, through a proper and complete estate plan. A power of attorney for financial matters can allow you to designate the person you want to make decisions governing your wealth and assets. (You can also plan for the financial management aspect of incapacity by using a revocable living trust, as your trust can allow for seamless transition of the management of funded assets from you to the successor trustee you designate.) Additionally, your advance directive and your power of attorney for healthcare can ensure that, if you cannot make decisions for yourself regarding your person and your medical care, the person you named will step in to do that.

Additionally, Summitt's death from Alzheimer's-related complications at the young age of 64 highlights the importance of not waiting to get your plan in place. As Popular Science magazine pointed out shortly after Summitt's death, "doctors and researchers still don't completely understand what causes" Alzheimer's. Given this lack of understanding, doctors cannot forecast who will get the disease, including who will encounter the early-onset variety like Coach Summitt did. In other words, just as life can be fleeting and come to an end unexpectedly and prematurely, the same can happen with one's mental capacity. The best way to ensure that you are prepared and protected against the potential pitfalls of Alzheimer's, dementia or other conditions that cause lost mental capacity is to execute a complete plan and begin that process right away.

This article written and published by:

Legacy Assurance Plan

8039 Cooper Creek Blvd

University Park, Florida 34201

844.306.5272 (Phone)

info@legacyassuranceplan.com (email)

@assuranceplan

#legacyassuranceplan

Click Below To See Other Legacy Assurance Plan Related Sites:

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Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Estate Planning | Protect Your Children, Even After Your Death

Summary: Most parents spend a lifetime worrying about, planning and strategizing ways to care for their children and enhance those children's well-being to the maximum extent possible. One way you can enhance your ability to provide for your children is through estate planning. With a thorough and well-designed estate plan in place, you can serve as a provider for (and protector of) your children, even after you die.

When most people begin thinking about creating an estate plan, they usually start by contemplating how they will distribute their assets after they die. For a lot of people, setting up this system of distribution usually centers around their children. Many distribution schemes involve executing a will that divides up one's assets, in equal fractions, to each of that person's children. For some, people, this is a completely appropriate way to plan for the distribution of their wealth. For others, though, more planning may be in order to ensure that all of their goals and objectives are met.

There are a lot of circumstances where you might want to consider using a different distribution plan other than "to my children, in equal parts, immediately upon my death." For these special circumstances, utilizing a trust or trusts as part of your planning may provide clear added benefits. One situation where this is true is if one or more of your children have special needs. Many people with special needs receive benefits from needs-based government programs. A large, or perhaps even modest, inheritance may result in the government declaring that your child no longer meets the financial qualifications for these types of programs, which may cut your child off from benefits upon which he/she has come to rely. Trust planning can help avert this disaster. With a properly crafted and executed special needs trust, you can still include your child with special needs in your estate plan distribution, while doing so in a way that will not cause the government to declare your child ineligible to continue receiving his/her benefits.

Another variety of trust planning that can benefit some families is the "spendthrift" trust. Some people who are loosely familiar with spendthrift trusts, or at least the word "spendthrift," may associate this type of planning with children who have problems in their lives, such as gambling addictions, drug/alcohol abuse problems, creditor issues, maybe a failing marriage with a money-hungry spouse... or just a notoriously terrible ability at managing money. Without a doubt, these situations are ones where a spendthrift trust may be able to help. But the possible circumstances where this type of planning are beneficial are not limited to those scenarios. Many parents may think that it is in their child (or children)'s best interests not to receive a large lump-sum of inheritance at a young age. A parent may desire that, even though their children are responsible and free of issues like addictions, divorces or lawsuits, the children not receive all of their distributions until they've reached milestones like graduating college, turning 25 or 30, or getting married.

In any of the situation outlines above, you can accomplish your goals through trust planning. You can choose the event that will trigger a partial (or final) distribution to each child. You can also give the trust's trustee as much or as little discretion as you desire in terms of making certain decisions, like whether to give a child a portion of his/her distribution in advance of the timetable laid out in the trust. When it comes to spendthrift planning or special needs planning, just like most other types of estate planning, there are a wealth of tools available to your estate planning attorney to make sure your plan does exactly what you want on precisely the timetable you desire.

This article written and published by:

Legacy Assurance Plan

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University Park, Florida 34201

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