Trust and Estate Tax Planning

With current lifetime and gift tax exemption amounts over $11.5 million, many individuals may feel that creating a trust or an estate plan is unnecessary. However, utilizing trusts in estate planning can assist with many personal objectives other than tax savings alone.

A trust is an estate planning tool established by transferring assets from your estate to another legal entity – the trust – to hold, safeguard, distribute or control for the benefit of another individual – for the most part. There are several types of trusts with different criteria based on when they are created, whether for the benefit of various individuals upon death, age attainment, for a certain number of years, to provide income either annually, at the trustee’s discretion, or based on a percentage of assets, among others. The type of trust to establish will depend upon your needs and wants for the trust.

Our goal is to help you understand which type of trust or specific plan best suits your needs. We can also review your current estate plan to accommodate any changes. We listen to you and help determine the planning tax strategies needed to achieve your goals. This can include meeting with your financial advisor and attorney to work as a team to establish or update your estate plan.

Trusts help you:

• Protect your assets
• Avoid probate
• Transfer property via sale or gift
• Provide financial support to your beneficiaries
• Provide for a special needs child
• Donate assets for a charitable purpose
• Reduce taxes
• Ensure you leave a legacy