Many would-be estate planners and individuals/families currently in the process of attending to estate administration matters know a thing or two about trusts.
Not many, though, likely know the degree to which these planning instruments provide for great flexibility and can either replace or supplement a will in myriad ways that advance planning goals across a truly wide universe of considerations.
As we note on our estate planning website at The Law Office of Theresa L. McConville in Ventura County, trusts can readily “advance any number of goals.”
Centrally, and when properly drafted, they can result in the avoidance of probate, which can be — and often is — a long and exhaustive court procedure that quite publicly focuses on the provisions and validity of an executed will. A trust can help planners avoid going through a conservatorship proceeding involving an incapacitated loved one. A trust can eliminate or help avoid tax outlays, help take care of a family member with special needs, pass along property to heirs, specify conditions relating to beneficiaries and conveyances, and do much more.
An online overview of the importance of trusts in many estate plans denotes two principal points regarding these legal instruments.
And those are these. First, they are popular planning tools in estate administration for the great flexibility they provide individuals and families. And, second, their consideration and creation often entails singular complexities that flatly require studied legal input.
As the above primer notes, “an experienced estate planning attorney should be consulted at all stages of the [trust making] process.”
