Trusts

PRACTICE AREAS

TRUSTS

A trust instrument is basically a descriptive written plan which delays and controls the ultimate distribution and management of your assets. Whether you are trying to protect assets from probate, seeking to avoid unnecessary capital gains taxes, attempting to protect a child with a disability or seeking to provide for a charitable cause, a trust may be the legal tool you need to accomplish your objectives. After your death or incapacity, the person you designate as a trustee will carry out your written intentions. There are many different types of trusts available, each with their own specific benefits but all with the same goal - to provide future management of your assets.

A Revocable Trust, sometimes called a Living Trust, is a trust that holds your assets during your lifetime. You may serve as the trustee of the trust and you have full control over the trust assets to do with as you wish. You can change the trust at any time or cancel it altogether. It provides who will replace you as trustee if you are incapacitated and then how that successor trustee will handle the trust assets during your incapacity. At your death, the trust serves as a form of a substitute for a Will in that it controls the distribution of your assets and it enables the avoidance of probate at your death.

An Irrevocable Trust, like other types of trusts, also provides how the trust assets will be managed in the future and how they will be distributed. One of the key advantages of this type of trust is that it provides the opportunity for estate tax savings as well as asset protection. The disadvantage is that in order to gain these advantages, you lose the ability to have control over the trust or the assets after transferring those assets to the trust.

A carefully crafted trust can have significant financial advantages, protect clients from unnecessary taxes and help transfer assets more efficiently and effectively.

Please contact the Law Offices of Bernadette M. Crowley at (718) 423-5500 or [email protected] for more information.