Needs (Rather than Wealth) Determine if You Need a Trust

If you are still unsure as to whether a trust is for you, there’s one simple question to answer: Is your net worth $100,000 or more? If it is, now is the time to talk to your estate planning attorney. There are a few other things to consider, of course, and there are many, many different kinds of trusts – which one is for you can only be determined with the help and guidance of an estate planning lawyer with a strong background in asset protection, wills and legal trusts.

One main thing to consider is whom you want your money and assets to benefit when you are gone. A whole host of options exist for various needs, including generation-skipping trusts, irrevocable life insurance trusts, revocable living trusts, and many more. But who you want to benefit from your trust will largely determine the type of trust you decide on. A trust will help your beneficiaries in a number of ways, not the least of which is being spared from inordinate taxation, uncomfortable disagreements and expensive – as well as extensive – probate.

Whether you consider yourself wealthy or not, a trust will protect what wealth you do have by enumerating certain conditions that you decide with the help of your estate planning attorney. You will name those who benefit from your trust and this will enable the proper heirs to receive what is rightfully theirs – in many cases without having to go through probate.