At Rebecca W. Geyer & Associates, PC, we understand that your Indiana estate plan will be completely unique. There are a number of tools that are available to you in order to develop the perfect plan for your circumstances. One of these that you may want to consider is a trust, which is a legal entity you create and fund with your assets.
Forbes lists these two advantages of setting up a trust.
- A trust protects your children
If you are wealthy, you may have reservations about simply bequeathing large amounts of money to each child upon your death. With a trust, you can leave instructions with the trustee to distribute funds to your beneficiaries at certain times, and in certain amounts.
An inheritance may not be enough to provide for a special needs child. Medicaid and Supplemental Security Income are often necessary to cover the extraordinary expenses related to health care. Fortunately, money in a trust does not affect eligibility, so you can still provide an income for your child without compromising financial assistance.
- A trust is private
In most cases, court records are public, and that includes probate court records. Any of your assets that go through the probate process will likely be listed for anyone to review. However, assets in a trust do not go through probate, and trusts are private legal documents. If privacy is important to you, you may want to set up a trust to ensure that your family’s inheritance is not a matter of public record.
You can find more information about trusts and other estate planning tools on our website.
