Trustee of Revocable Living Trusts in Georgia
The decision to create a Trust should not be based on how many assets you have, but rather on your plans for probate and incapacity. A Trust allows a Trustee to manage your assets, even if you are incapacitated and avoids probate at your death. For Revocable Living Trusts, you can be the Trustee of your trust for as long as you are alive and have the capacity to manage your finances. As a Trustee, you retain full control, management, and disbursement of your trust. As a Trustee, you can decide to modify the trust, terminate the trust, or merge it with another trust. Because a Revocable Living Trust is more about creating a vessel for control of your assets than anything else, the Grantor/you may serve as a Trustee. A Revocable Living Trust is not designed to protect your assets from divorce, creditors, lawsuits, or shelter the funds from Medicaid or Estate Taxes. A Revocable Living Trust is a malleable vessel to best pass along your assets while keeping you in sole control and able to make all the decisions.
What About After Death?
In your Revocable Living Trust, you do have to name a successor trustee if you name yourself. You can name the same person for all roles, or name different people upon incapacity or upon your death. You can name Co-Trustees or Corporate Trustees. You can also allow your beneficiaries to add, remove, or replace Trustees upon your incapacity or after your death.
Should you become incapacitated, your successor trustee will manage your assets pursuant to your instructions in the trust. After your death, the assets in the trust go to your beneficiaries.
Trustee of Irrevocable Trusts in Georgia
The creation of an Irrevocable Trust should be given great consideration. Irrevocable Trusts are designed to protect assets. Depending on what kind of Irrevocable Trust is created (Life Insurance Trust, Gifting Trust, Education Trust, Credit Shelter Trust. Etc.), the trust will shelter assets from creditors, lawsuits, estate taxes, or to allow wealth to pass through generations. Irrevocable Trusts cannot be changed after they are created. You should not be the Trustee of an Irrevocable Trust most of the time. While there are exceptions to this rule, you should consult with an attorney when deciding if an Irrevocable Trust is right for you, and when deciding who should serve as a Trustee.
Your estate planning attorney can help you draft your trust. Once you create the trust and sign the document, you then fund the trust by transferring assets into the trust by retitling those assets to the trust. Contact our Georgia estate planning attorneys at Grissom Law, LLC to help create an estate plan to help manage your assets during and after your lifetime.
Disclaimer
This Blog/Web Site is made available for educational purposes only as well as to give you general information and a general understanding of the law, not to provide legal advice. By using this blog site you understand that there is no attorney-client relationship between you and Grissom Law, LLC.