How To Tell If A Trust Is Right For My Estate?
When a person is starting their estate planning, their options can be overwhelming, and it is common to feel unsure about what may be best for their specific situation. A trust is one potential planning choice that is quite popular with many, but it is not always the best tool for everyone. It is a good idea to understand the nature of a trust – and its various forms – before putting anything down on paper. The right Putnam County attorney can help.
Who Benefits?
The people who benefit most from using a trust as an estate planning tool tend to have concerns about keeping their assets (and/or their money) within the family, have long-term care concerns, or who have people to provide for explicitly – for example, children of a previous marriage who would not inherit if their parent died intestate. If a person’s estate would be simple, a trust may not be worth creating.
In addition to being malleable enough to fit many different people’s estate planning needs, a trust may also protect the privacy of the decedent. Once a will has been submitted to probate, it is considered public record in New York, and can be found by anyone performing the right search. Trust documents are private, and in the overwhelming majority of cases, will remain that way.
Avoiding Probate
There are two major types of trusts: revocable and irrevocable. A revocable trust is best suited for estate planning, given that it can be altered by people named in the trust’s founding documents. Conversely, an irrevocable trust is used most often for asset protection – the most common example is if a person needs long-term nursing care, and wishes to preserve assets against Medicaid – because it is unchangeable in all but the rarest cases.
The main reason that most people use a trust, of course, is because they wish to avoid the probate process. Probate is the process of validating a deceased person’s will, and distributing their assets to their beneficiaries as requested. A revocable trust, however, takes assets out of the probate estate and puts them in the name of the trust, rather than its settlor, meaning that those assets will not be tied up in the probate process.
Contact A Pleasantville Estate Planning Attorney
If you are starting your estate planning journey, enlisting the right attorney can make all the difference in ensuring you feel prepared for whatever life may throw in your direction. A Pleasantville estate planning attorney from Meyer & Spencer, PC can work with you to ensure that all is in order. Contact our office today at (845) 628-0009 to schedule a consultation.
Source:
health.ny.gov/health_care/medicaid/trusts.htm