Trusts

Trusts can be an important and highly customizable part of your Estate Plan. Trusts can be used to manage and dispose of your assets and decrease your tax burden – either while you are alive or after you die.

Putting your assets in a trust transfers them from your personal ownership to a trust account (with you, someone else or a financial institution as trustee) that holds the property, defined by certain rules, for your beneficiaries. Trusts are highly customizable and can include any kind of real or personal property–including money, real estate, stocks, bonds, collections, business interests and tangible assets.

Different kinds of trust accounts can be used to support special needs (minor children and disabled individuals), insure income for a surviving spouse, plan for gift and estate taxes, transfer property, support a charity, plan for Medicaid and long-term care, or pay for education. Revocable trusts are more flexible; however, irrevocable trusts have tax advantages that revocable trusts do not.

Some kinds of trusts are designed to help individuals and their families preserve eligibility for public benefits. Our Protocols affiliate specializes in this area.

By law, trustees and other fiduciaries must act in the best interest of the protected person and are responsible for certain duties. If you are in this position, we can help you comply with the laws of fiduciary responsibility. In addition, our attorneys serve as trustees for special needs and irrevocable life insurance trusts. Our litigators can help if your actions are challenged or contested.

We work closely with you and your family, public and private benefits providers, employers, business partners, professional services providers, fiduciaries and charitable organizations to make sure that your trust – as an important component of your Estate Plan – meets your unique personal and financial objectives.

Attorneys:

Robert L. Sagrillo | Henry M. Kohnlein

info@sagrillokohnlein.com