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What Are The Complicating Factors In A Trust?

Law Blog

When you meet with a trust lawyer, it is important to have a sense of what the complicating factors will be in the creation of and execution of the trust. Before you create one, it's wise to be aware of these three potential issues.

Triggers

The simplest way to trigger a trust is for you to bring it into being upon signing. However, there are plenty of reasons why someone might want to have a more complex arrangement. For example, you might have a minor dependent child, and you may not want the trust to kick in until the child becomes an adult.

Similar trusts might operate in anticipation of caring for a spouse if they become ill in the future and you're unable to provide for them. The trust does not need to come into being until those conditions arise, and it might never come into being if the conditions do not. You will want to have a trust attorney help you arrange this for you.

Revocability

A trust can either be irrevocable or revocable. The main advantage of an irrevocable trust is that once it comes into being, it never goes away. However, that means the grantor has zero power after that point. Other than the power of an appointed trustee, there's little influence to stop a beneficiary from making particular choices.

Conversely, a revocable trust can be problematic for other reasons. The transfer of assets into the trust can create tax and accounting issues. Similarly, revoking a trust can anger a beneficiary.

On the flip side, a major advantage of the grantor retaining control of the trust is that it might put the assets outside the reach of certain legal proceedings. Since the assets aren't the beneficiary's property, a spouse can't claim them as marital property in a divorce. Likewise, the trust's assets are likely to be beyond the reach of creditors in bankruptcy.

Funding

Generally, funding is not a big issue if you're creating an irrevocable trust that goes into effect immediately. However, you need to think about the funding sources for trusts that might take years or decades to come into being. The same applies to shifting asset values, especially if you're planning to transfer less-common assets like artwork or collectibles. It is prudent to review the documents with the support of a trust lawyer every couple of years to be safe on this front.

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19 July 2021