A trust can be a powerful tool to protect your assets. It often makes sense to create one, but there are also situations where trust is not your best tool. A trust attorney in Tampa, FL can tell you the benefits of a trust and when they’re most useful under Florida law.
When Does It Make Sense to Create a Trust?
1. You Become Incapacitated
Anyone can become unexpectedly incapacitated, of course, but a trust is a particularly wise move if you know that incapacitation is a greater risk for you than it might be for others. For example, if dementia runs in your family or if you have been diagnosed with a slow-onset condition and know that eventually you’ll be less able to manage your affairs, now might be the perfect time to create a trust with a successor trustee in place. You can continue to control your assets as long as you’re able to, and once you become incapacitated, you won’t even necessarily have to be declared incompetent before the successor trustee can take over. The transfer is smooth, and you get invaluable peace of mind.
2. You Have Assets You Don’t Want to Go Through Probate
Probate is a long and involved, costly process. All the assets that go through probate are unavailable to your family until the probate process is finished. A trust can protect your assets from this probate process, and it’s important to talk with a lawyer about the best type of trust for your intentions. With some trusts, the probate process can be avoided, but the assets in the trust can still be vulnerable if you have a lot of debt or there’s a possibility of a lawsuit after your death. Other trusts offer more protection from taxes and debts but give you less flexibility to control the assets during your lifetime.
3. You Want to Control Asset Distribution
If you have reason to believe you won’t be living much longer, and even if you have no such diagnosis but are just concerned about the possibility of passing away before your children are old enough to have learned how to manage money well, creating a trust can give you confidence that your assets will be distributed to the beneficiaries on your terms.
If you don’t have a trust in place, then your beneficiaries will simply be given everything that is left to them in the will. That may be fine, but if you want to avoid leaving a huge payout to a very young adult who might not be mature enough to handle that much, putting it into a trust can allow you to have it dispersed to them throughout their lives at various intervals or specifically disbursed only for important expenses, such as buying a home, getting an education, or paying medical bills.
Talk to a Tampa, FL Trust Attorney Today
For more about whether a trust is right for you or not, contact the Law Office of Elizabeth Devolder in Tampa, FL today, and let’s talk about how to protect your family.
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