Family trusts are legally binding estate planning tools that help protect and benefit you and your family financially. It can be created for various purposes, like determining the beneficiaries of your estate.
Family Trust is Important
Making distribution of your wealth easier after your death, managing the taxation, and more.
Often, people cannot decide whether to make the family trust or go for other options, like making a will. It requires considering many factors that could question its rewards and effect on the beneficiaries.
Here, we are discussing several reasons explaining the significance of family trust and why people should consider it a part of their estate planning strategy.
Succession Planning
A family trust is highly effective in efficient succession planning on both personal and business levels.
It can focus on two things, management succession and ownership succession. In this way, the family of the planner can benefit in many ways.
The beneficiaries get financial security once their position in the business and right to wealth becomes clear.
The future generations then receive the funds as a family tradition. If you need a clear balance of power, a family trust is a perfect option for resolving family and business-related issues.
Flexible Distribution
In family trusts, you have the complete freedom of distributing your wealth as you want. The flexible distribution enables you to decide what every beneficiary will get.
You can also set a limit for the spendthrift beneficiaries by assigning a sum of the amount to be given every month and nothing more.
You can also make a trust online using tools like NOLO, US Legal Wills, Rocket Lawyer, and more. These tools can help you allocate funds for every beneficiary and on different things, such as medical treatments, donations, or other expenditures.
Relationship Property Claims
According to the relationship property laws, if a person gives his wealth or property to his children during his life or in a will, these things become their spouses’ property.
However, if you allocate all these in a trust, the beneficiaries technically do not own them but can receive their benefits. In this way, the family wealth is reserved, and no spouse or civil partner of any beneficiary can claim anything from the trust.
Tax Protection
Family trust reduces the current and potential estate taxes. In 2021, only 0.1% of dead Americans had to pay taxes on family trusts.
Most regulatory authorities assume that the tax money already applies to the funds when placed in the family trust. In this way, the receivers do not have to pay the tax on trust money.
However, we recommend consulting your estate attorney or a professional accountant to analyze the taxation policy and its effect on the beneficiaries.
Reduced Family Feuds
Estate planning maps a plan for your funds. When you develop a family trust instead of a will, challenging it is very challenging and costly.
It identifies your successor, the receivers of your funds, and everything they will get. In this way, the chances of conflicts and misunderstandings are reduced, making everyone eventually accept the grantor’s decision.
If you intend to use family trusts for this purpose, it is important to get your plan checked with a legal and financial advisor who can tell you about making it more convenient, transparent, and fair.
Privacy of Personal & Family Matters
The best part of a family trust is that it does not require probate. Probate is a legal process to recognize the will and appoint an executioner to manage the distribution of wealth and property among intended beneficiaries.
The probate forces the will and financial matters to become public, often exposing family matters.
Since family trusts do not require probate, they ensure the privacy of family and financial matters. Only the granter and beneficiaries can access the conditions of the trust and the value of the assets.
In some cases, the records of some assets, e.g., real estate and securities, are public. If you intend to keep them confidential, you can place these things in the name of nominee partnerships.
The Drawback of Family Trust
We have highlighted the benefits of choosing a family trust, and it is essential to know about its expenditure. A high cost is required to set it up, which requires the professional advice of accountants, financial experts, and attorneys.
If you are setting up the trust, remember that its management is based on different fees, like funds stored in the banks, levies on the securities, and commission per transaction.
For risker assets, the management fees might be higher. Consequently, a large part of your funds will be spent on trust management only.
Final Thoughts
Making an effective plan to leave an inheritance to the family during your life or after death is certainly a difficult process. It becomes harder to decide the best thing for you – a will, an estate plan, or a family trust.
Everything has its pros and cons, but we believe that family trusts are more useful than others, even if they are least used nowadays.
To understand them better, consult a professional attorney and financial advisors with expertise in this area so you can make the best decision regarding your assets and for the people you care about.
