Should I Name a Corporate Trustee Like A Bank or Trust Company or an Individual Trustee?
Video Summary
Should I name a corporate trustee, like a bank or trust company or an individual trustee? Well, I believe that corporate trustees or trust companies are very well suited to handle large trust where there’s a lot of assets and it’s a continuing trust, meaning that the trustee is directed to hold the asset, invest it, and give the income or make distributions over a period of time to the beneficiary, such as hold the money until the beneficiary reach his age 35 and only give them income. They need to make investment choices, and they would do a very good job of as far as investing. One of the factors involved with the corporate trustee is their fee schedule and that you might want to check to see what their minimums are and what size of trust they usually like to handle, and that usually they have certain minimums as what it would cost them to handle it. On the other hand, if you have an individual which you trust, or one of your children or a relative who you believe could handle this and you have make provision for your assets to be distributed outright, then an individual may work out just fine and that they can simply marshal the assets or inventory them and then either sell them or turn around and distribute them in kind to the beneficiaries. And so, it’s not that complicated. Sometimes you want to name an individual, particularly if you have a minor or someone, a special needs person, and you want the human element of them to be able to make decisions as if the child or the beneficiary was theirs. So those are some of the factors to look at as far as individual versus corporate trustees. And usually, an individual does not charge the same rate as what a corporate trustee would. My phone number is (727) 847-2288If you have any questions
- Published in LLC's and Corporations, Trusts, Videos
How Can I Minimize the Chances of My Will Being Contested After My Death?
Video Summary
How can I minimize the chances of my will being contested after my death? Well, the first thing that you should do is to have an attorney prepare the will and have him be the witness, and that anytime that there’s a will challenge, he would be the best witness to testify. As far as your competency, the basis for setting aside your will is that you did not have the mental capacity to make a will, so certainly the lawyer would make that determination. The other one is undue influence. So if you want to leave most of your estate to one of your children and exclude some of the other or make a disproportionate share, then there’s a couple of things that you need to try and do if possible, and that there’s a presumption of undue influence. If the person who that you’re leaving these disproportionate share or all of your estate to them, whether it be a child or anyone else is, did they select the attorney that they take you to the attorney’s office? Were they present whenever you made out the will? Did they know what you put in the will after you have the will? Were they present whenever you signed the will? Did they know the contents of the will? And also as far as paying for it? So,if some of these factors are present, it presents a undue influence. So, if possible, not to have the person select the lawyer or take you to the appointment or know what’s in the will, I realize many times that’s not possible and that you’re dependent on the caregiver or child who’s taking care of you to bring you to the appointment. And so I have over the years tried to do this as tactfully as possible, as tell the person that you’re going to be living and that’s brought you there as they need to excuse themselves, wait in the waiting room, and I make a notation in my notes that I’ve excused them. And then discuss who you want to receive your estate and why you want to do that. In order to try and overcome these problems. In the event there is a will challenge after you’re gone. Also, you need to put in the will. If you’re leaving someone out, a child out, you need to just put in there expressly, make no provision for a particular child to show that you did not forget them. The old thing is leaving my dollar is a terrible idea and that you tasked the lawyer with having to, or the executor, trying to get them to receive for a dollar, particularly if they don’t like the provisions of the will. So just put in there that you didn’t forget about ’em. You expressly make no provision for them. If you have any questions, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.
How Often Should My Trust Be Reviewed and Updated?
Video Summary
How often should my Trust be reviewed and updated? You should have it reviewed periodically to see if there’s any change in circumstances such as one of your beneficiaries passing away or if you provide for grandchildren whether you’ve had any additional grandchildren. If there’s been any change in circumstances as far as your child, as far as being disassociated with you or estranged or if you provide for stepchildren or whether or not you continue to wish to provide for them. So, there’s any number of reasons why you want it reviewed if there’s a change in circumstance. Another one is in the event the law changes, particularly as far as the taxes are concerned. For many years it was a lower amount, and so if your assets had several million dollars, well then you would need to have do the estate planning for tax purposes. They’ve raised the estate tax limitation now to $14 million or thereabouts, and so therefore, it is not important to worry about planning for estate taxes since there should be none. So, if you have any questions, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.
What Is Better Per Stirpes Or Per Capita?
Video Summary
What is better is per stirpes or per capita? Well, I don’t know that either one of them is better than the other. You use them to determine what your intent is. If you want the devised to go to your child, or if that child dies before you want it to go to their children or your grandchildren of that child, then you would use the word per stirpes or per stirps. If on the other hand, if you have, let’s say, three children and you want your estate to go to the survivor so that if one of your children dies before you want your entire estate to go to the other two, you would want to use the word per capita in your estate plan. So I’ll leave everything to my three children, and you would name them in equal shares per capita. So per capita, you count the number of heads that are alive at the time of your death to determine who receives it. On the other hand, if it’s per stirpes, you determine if any of the children have died before you and or your executor does because you are deceased and determine whether who you determine their children or their heirs to distribute their share to those grandchildren or their heirs. If you have any questions about it, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.
- Published in Estate Planning, Trusts, Videos
How Do I Get an Advance or Loan on My Share of the Probate Assets In The Estate or Trust?
Video Summary
How do I obtain an advance or loan on my share of the probate estate or Trust? Well, there’s various companies out there that will loan you money on your inheritance. I think the interest rate is very, very high. What I would suggest you do is to ask the executor or trustee of the estate or trust if they can make a partial distribution to you of your share of the trust with an estate or even with a Trust. Sometimes it’s difficult for them to know how much is going to be available if there are any creditors outstanding, or they must liquidate real estate as far as that’s concerned. But there are several companies out there who will lend money or give you a loan against your inheritance. I’m not sure just what the interest rate is, but they’ll take an assignment of your beneficial interest and I’m not sure what the loan to value would be. So, if you have any questions about it, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.
- Published in Estate Planning, Trusts, Videos