You’ve decided to pass your home on to your children, but you haven’t settled on the best method to transfer ownership. You are also questioning whether you want to stay in the home or downsize to a smaller place. What factors should you be considering as you make your decision?
Start by reviewing the typical
Trusts
Thinking about setting up a trust for your family? Human nature being what it is, you might want to keep your options open by setting up a trust that you can change or cancel at any time. If your formerly sweet granddaughter tells you she is devoting her life to Satan worship, for example, you
Is a will sufficient for your estate, or should you consider a trust? Before addressing this question, let’s review trusts and what they do.
A trust transfers legal title to property to a trustee, who manages the assets of that trust during your lifetime (if it is a living trust) and distributes or manages the
A trust is a legal arrangement where a person or company (the trustee) has the legal title to property for another person. If you set up a trust while you are still alive, this is called a living trust.
The trustee has legal rights of management and is expected to manage the trust assets for
An Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust (ILIT) is a trust set up to hold ownership of your life insurance policies. There are three primary reasons why an ILIT might be right for you.
Avoiding Estate Taxes – Unless you take steps to prevent it, the proceeds of your life insurance policies are included as part of
A land trust is a type of revocable living trust designed for only one purpose – to hold title to real estate. Usually, they are created to provide some level of privacy and/or protection to the landowners.
A trustee is chosen (typically a corporate entity), and beneficiaries make their wishes known to the trustee with
A QTIP in the financial field refers to Qualified Terminable Interest Property, a definition used in forming a special type of trust. QTIPs are properties such as lifetime income interests that qualify for the marital deductions on estate taxes.
There are three primary purposes to a QTIP trust:
Direction of Assets After Surviving Spouse’s Death
You may have saved diligently for retirement and managed your money well, but in the end, long-term care costs can derail your plans and quickly exhaust your savings and other assets. According to LongTermCare.gov, average costs for 2010 were $6,235 and $6,965 per month for semi-private and private rooms in nursing homes, respectively. For how
There are two avenues of government assistance to disabled Americans – Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or Medicaid. To qualify for these programs, generally a person must meet the definition of disabled as defined by the Social Security Administration, must have resources of less than $2,000 and the disability must prevent them from holding a job.
Not surprisingly, choosing a trustee is one of the most important aspects of setting up a trust. It is not uncommon for trustees to be unprepared, overwhelmed, disinterested, or otherwise unsuited for the job they have been given.
The job of a trustee, and therefore the best choice of trustee, varies depending on the type