Does Revocable Trust Need a Bank Account
Video Summary
Does revocable trusts need a trust account or bank account? The answer to the question is yes. If you have an account that you want controlled by your trustees, you need to by your trust, you need to name, to set up the account and your name as trustee of your particular trust. The reason for that is, is if it’s just in your individual name, then the provisions, the trust do not apply. So sometimes you see people that have set up a wonderful trust and it says everything. And the idea is to avoid probate, but they don’t turn around and retitled their assets and their name is trustee under their trust. So whenever they pass away, you have to go through a probate process to get an order for the assets to go to the trust and then have the trust, distribute the assets, which defeated the whole purpose of setting up the trust to avoid probate. So if you want assets to be controlled, by your trust, you need to title them in the name of your name as trustee under your revocable trust and name your as trustee and name your trust in the, how you title the asset for it to be controlled by the, the provisions of your trust. If you have any questions, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.
- Published in Estate Planning, Probate, Trusts, Videos
Why Would I Need to Open a Trust Account
Video Summary
Why would I need to open a trust account? If you set up a revocable trust for state planning purposes, you should set up your bank account. So. it shows you as trustee of your revocable trust. The reason for that is, is so that the provisions, the trust will control because if you leave the, the accounts just in your name, well then particularly if you set it up to avoid probate, you would have to probate your estate in order to have the accounts be placed in your name, either your successor’s name as trustee of the trust, so that they could then be distributed. So if you want your trust to control your bank accounts on who it goes to upon your death, you need to title them in your name as trustee under your revocable trust. So that is the reason why you would want to open up a bank account and the name of your name as trustee of your trust. If you have any questions, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.
- Published in Estate Planning, Trusts, Videos
What Are the Drawbacks of a Living Trust?
video summary
What are the drawbacks of a living trust? Well, the biggest drawback that I see the living trust is that it’s a complicated document. And then once you sign it you have to rely upon what the lawyer tells you. It says, rather than you’re trying to understand 16 or 17 pages of legal jargon. I always ask folks why they want to set up a trust. And if the simple reason for this is to avoid probate, I go through and I ask them, well, what assets do you have? And that’s simply a matter of real property, some bank accounts and a brokerage account. Those can be, we can avoid probate through titling. If you just have a, a couple of beneficiaries, if you wanna set up a trust because a person is disabled and you want them, a special needs trust.
So they don’t receive the money. Well, that’s a good reason to set up a living trust. Another good reason to set up a living trust is if you need to protect the beneficiaries from spending all the money, if they’re, either have some addiction problems, or they’re not good money managers, you want their money to be held until they reach a certain age, although they may receive the income. One of the other disadvantages of a living trust is the cost to set them up in that’s usually there more expensive. I would also do not unless under severe duress ever set up a joint trust between husband and wife. I still do, but it’s usually it’s not needed particularly to avoid probate. And also you don’t want to put at your homestead property, your home into a joint trust. It creates problems as far as when the first spouse passes away. So if you have any questions about setting up a trust, give me a call and (727) 847-2288.
- Published in Estate Planning, Trusts, Videos
If I Have a Living Trust, Should I Also Have a Will?
Video Summary
If I have a living trust, should I have a will answer? The question is yes, those are called Pour- Over wills, meaning that your will says I leave whatever assets that I may have that are just titled in. I name to the trustee of my trust, the trust, then the trustee designates who the beneficiaries are, what I have found over my career that sometimes trust are set up and are fine and dandy. They designate who all the beneficiaries are, but for whatever reason, the assets of the decedent are not titled into the name of the trustee. And so there must be a probate proceeding to have the assets transferred to the trustee so they can be distributed to the beneficiaries. So without a will leaving it to the trust, well then the assets would pass to the children or the heirs of the decedent, which is probably not the same as the testament scheme or who you wanted to receive these assets as, as a result of executing a trust. So that is a real good reason to have a will. That leaves everything to the trustee and your trust upon your death in the event. So that any assets that you have in your name alone will go to your trustee to be distributed to your designated beneficiaries. If you have any questions, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.
- Published in Estate Planning, Trusts, Videos, Wills
Who Should I Choose as Trustee of My Trust?
Video Summary
Who should I choose as trustee of my trust? Whenever you’re doing estate planning and need to select a trust successor trustee to your revocable trust, you usually appoint a family member. That family member should have some business experience and be one that you believe that would want to treat everyone fairly and to follow your wishes and what you designate under the provisions of the trust. If you are dealing with a lot of money, over a million dollars you may want to consider designating a trust company or a bank with trust powers for them to administer the trust and invest the money so that they can continue to pay the money out for it. If you have a, uh, a trust where you simply want to have your assets distributed to the various beneficiaries, while that’s relatively simple to do, and, uh, family members should be able to, uh, take care of that and if they have any questions, you could direct them to contact the attorney who prepared the trust or can contact my office and I would be glad to give them some information and or, uh, represent them. As far as administering the trust, the trustee would be required to, uh, obtain a federal identification number for tax purposes. Since the trust, when it becomes your revocable, uh, becomes a taxpayer and an information return is required called a fiduciary tax return. And so I can give you some guidance as far as the, uh, federal ID numbers concerned, filing the inventory, the notice of trust and the public records and gentlemen, they represent you as far as, administering the trust and taking care of, following the wishes of the person who established the trust. If you have any questions about trust administrations, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.