Trust Lawyers in Waco Protecting Clients’ Assets When They Need It Most
Trusts can be helpful estate planning tools that give everyone more direct control over their assets while they are still alive and competent, regardless of the overall worth of the estate. Additionally, trusts allow you to designate beneficiaries for specific assets directly and specifically after you pass away. Proactively planning and making decisions concerning your assets is the best step you can take to care for your family, both now and for generations to come.
The lawyers at Rainey & Rainey, Attorneys at Law, LP, have the experience and dedication necessary to ensure that your estate is managed according to your wishes, even after you become incapacitated or pass away. Our attorneys understand that no two situations are precisely the same, and we take the time to listen and understand your goals in planning so that you will have peace of mind knowing that your estate will be taken care of properly.
When is a Trust Used?
Common uses of a trust include “accommodating and managing assets belonging to minors”, those with special needs, or others with a habit of flippantly spending their money. Placing income and assets into a trust gives you complete control both during your life and after you die, allowing your investments to be managed according to your wishes.
Trusts can be used for any of the following:
- Distribute funds to charity
- Deliver payment to beneficiaries in intervals that are predetermined
- Protect assets from creditors or potential lawsuits
- Guarantee assets will pass to children, even in remarriage or blended family situations
- Determine exact asset dissemination to beneficiaries
What is a Living Trust in Waco?
A living trust is one possible way to avoid your assets being tied up in a probate process. Establishing a revocable living trust places assets in the trust to benefit you and your beneficiaries by holding them in unsupervised processes.
When creating a living trust, you designate yourself or someone else as a trustee. That person is responsible for managing the assets placed within the trust. Then, you name a successor to your estate. At the time of your death or incapacitation, ownership of the trust and the assets within convert to that of the successor.
Your assets will need to be placed into a living trust, should you create one. Those assets include:
- Mutual funds
- Securities
- Bank accounts
- Certificates of deposit
- Other assets, including real, personal, or business property or interests
What Other Types of Trusts Exist in Waco?
In a revocable living trust, a grantor can cancel or revoke the trust at any time. The revocable living trust is the most common type due to its flexibility. You may cancel, change, or update it by removing or putting in assets, naming a new successor, removing a previous successor, changing the predetermined guidelines, or trading property the trust owns. Upon your death or incapacitation, your successor trustee must follow your instructions to the letter given to them in the Declaration of Trust.
In an irrevocable living trust, you may not make such changes to the terms of the trust. These trusts are used to transfer property ownership and can be changed only by a judge’s order or agreement signed by all names attached to the trust.
Contrary to a living trust, a testamentary trust is set up posthumously following the instructions in your last will and testament. The terms of a testamentary trust can be altered at any point until your death, and this trust is simpler and more flexible than other types of trust.
Other types of less common trusts are:
- Charitable Trusts
- Charitable Lead Trusts
- Charitable Remainder Trusts
- Qualified Terminable Interest Property Trusts
- Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts
- Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts
- Irrevocable Funeral Trusts
- Spendthrift Trusts
- Special Needs Trusts
- Generation-Skipping Trusts
- Totten Trusts
Where Can I Go to Establish a Trust?
When establishing a trust, you want to enlist the services of a trust attorney who will take the time and care required to properly plan out the distribution of your estate after your death. The lawyers at Rainey & Rainey, Attorneys at Law, LP, have four decades of experience doing just that and will provide a level of service that few other law firms in Texas can provide. Call and set an appointment today at (254) 457-5083.