A family is never exempt from entering into a lawsuit or making bad business decisions that may put their assets at risk. A family trust is an efficient legal tool for protecting your inheritance that you have managed to treasure with years of effort.
If you have an estate that you want to protect for yourself and your loved ones, a family trust is undoubtedly the best legal way that ensures the protection and management of your estate and its distribution among your heirs according to your wishes.
If you’re looking to set up a family trust to benefit yourself and your family, here are the options to consider so you can make an informed decision!
What is a Family Trust?
A family trust is a legally binding tool set up through a contract to securely hold, protect and manage a person’s estate and ensure it is distributed among their rightful heirs. It is the best option for those looking for ways to put their assets and money in place to benefit their loved ones when they’re no longer around to care for them.
With a family trust in place, you don’t have to worry about the undesirable circumstances that may occur with your heirs endangering the family inheritance. Thanks to the constitution of a trust, you can avoid future uncertainties.
Besides protecting your estate, a family trust may also help you and your loved ones avoid probate and reduce or delay taxes, saving them time and money on paperwork.
Before we discuss the options you have when setting up a trust, you must know the three parties involved in any family trust:
- the grantor (person setting up the trust),
- the trustee (the assigned person responsible for managing the trust), and
- the beneficiaries (people who will benefit financially from the trust.)
The trust’s flexibility reaches such an extent that it can determine a specific quorum for the sale of a property to take place, for example, for it to last until the minor of the children reach a certain age.
These governance rules are created when the trust contract is signed and are intended to protect the initial interests with which it was established. Also, there are exceptions to formalities from state to state, making the process more complex.
To ensure a secure and stress-free setup of your family trust and effective succession planning, accompany yourself with the best real property law firm lawyer. For example, if you’re looking to set up a family trust in New York, hire the best real property law firm in NYC to get legal guidance from the best Brooklyn estate lawyer.
Types of a Family Trust
Irrevocable Family Trust
An irrevocable trust cannot be changed or canceled once created and is often established to protect assets. Once a grantor sets up an irrevocable family trust and funds their assets and money to it, they lose control and access to them.
Revocable Family Trust
If you create a revocable trust and finance it, you can modify or dissolve it whenever you want. It is a flexible option for those who want to make changes over time.
Living Family Trust
A living trust is a legal tool to hold and protect a person’s estate for as long as they are alive. It consists of exhaustively detailing your wishes about the assets after your death.
Marriage Trust
As the name indicates, this type of trust specifies transferring a person’s complete estate automatically to their surviving spouse upon death. The trust will pass to the designated beneficiaries if both spouses are deceased.
Indeed, a family trust is a vehicle par excellence to protect family assets, optimize the tax burden and establish the desired succession and inheritance planning; hence, the Estate lawyer Brooklyn who advises the family in the process is essential.
If you’re looking for the best Real Property Law firm Brooklyn, contact Ledwidge & Associates. We are specialists in estate and succession planning under the figure of the trust, where we will give you peace of mind knowing that your assets will be managed by a team of professionals who will watch over your family finances.
Call +1 718-276-6656 or visit their website for a consultation with an experienced Brooklyn estate lawyer now!
Ledwidge & Associates
