What Is A Testamentary Trust

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What is a testamentary trust? A testamentary trust is found in a will. That’s why they call it testamentary, and that the terms of the trust are spelled out in the will, and the trust does not take effect until after you die. That is versus setting up a revocable trust while you’re still alive, transferring all the assets into the name of your trustee while you’re alive, and as many times set up to avoid probate. If you have a testamentary trust, your will has to be admitted to probate, and then the testamentary trust is established and all the assets that were in your name at the time of your death passed to the trustee under the testamentary trust. The testamentary trust spells out who the beneficiaries are and how the trust is to be distributed. So, if you have any questions, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.

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How can I help my kids so that they do not spend their entire inheritance after turning age 18? Well, number 1, is if they’re entitled to the money or they have the money in their name, there’s nothing you can do other than give them parental advice and hopefully they will listen to you. However, if there’s any planning to be done, you can provide in your will or your trust that their monies be held in a trust so that, I usually suggest that, their money be held until their age 25 with the direction of whoever the trustee is. So, hold the money for their health, education, and maintenance. And then at age 25 that they receive a third or a half of the money, and then they receive the balance of money at 30 or 35, depending if you want, at what age you believe that they would be responsible enough to take care of the money.
So, there’s little you can do if the money is in their name, you can do something about it as if you are putting it in your estate planning documents and they’ll be inheriting it from you. You can either put this in a testamentary trust, which is in your will, or if you want, you can set up a trust,  if you’re by yourself and you want the money to be held after you pass away for them and so that they don’t receive it at age 18. If you have any questions, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.

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Are my asset protected from creditors if I set up a trust? If you set up a trust for state planning purposes, for the in order to avoid probate, and you designate yourself as trustee, your assets are not protected from creditors. You have control over these assets and if a creditor obtains a judgment against you, they can attach a levy upon any asset that you hold as trustee, under your trust as if they were just in your name alone. So setting up a revocable trust, does not protect your assets from creditors. You have questions about this. Give me a call at (727) 847-2288.

 

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Revocable trust  vs irrevocable trust, What is the difference? Well, just using the words, I think help better describe it than anything, but a revocable trust is usually executed for estate planning purposes and allows you to change your beneficiaries, make any modifications. As far as the trust is concerned you name yourself as a trustee and you have complete control over these assets. You can even do away with the trust. So, you have complete flexibility as far as amending the trust. And, so it doesn’t become irrevocable until such time as you pass away. And, an irrevocable trust means one that cannot be changed, that would be the case. Whenever you die, your trust becomes irrevocable and it can’t be changed. And the successor trustee must distribute the assets pursuant to the provisions of your previously revocable trust. Also, an irrevocable trust can be set up. Most of the time that’s set up, for a life insurance trust, also set up for Medicaid purposes, but an irrevocable trust means that you don’t serve as a trustee. You do not control the assets and you cannot change the terms. There are some minor modifications that you can make to an irrevocable trust as far as the trustee,  things like that, and there are some circumstances where they can be dissolved or modified, but we need the consent and everyone, who is a beneficiary or potential beneficiary to join in, to modify the provisions of an irrevocable trust. So, in essence, a revocable trust, You can change it, an irrevocable trust. You can, if you have any questions, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.

 

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What is a testamentary deposit account? While testamentary means who you want to receive something upon your death. The most common form of a testamentary deposit account is one where you set it up with the bank and put the initials on it: P O D upon your death, if there’s any money in there or whatever money’s in there, it’s payable to whoever you’ve designated whenever you opened the account. And so they would be the beneficiaries, which would be a testimony account ITF, which is in trust for which is,  did the same thing where you would hold the money in your name, but the account would be in your name and then upon your death, that would designate who would receive the account. So those are a couple of examples of testamentary accounts, which would pass to your beneficiaries upon your death. And that’s all set up through your banking.  Also if you have brokerage account, you can set those up and those initials are T O D, which stands for transfer on death. So if you have an account, let’s say with, Merrill Lynch, you can in your name and you want to go to your son’s name, but not have he not have any access during your lifetime, you can check with your broker and say, I’d like to, make this account, go to my son automatically. And then they can set up an account with T O D, which means transfer on death, which would operate the same as a bank account. If you have any questions, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.