November 3, 2020

The establishment of a trust is usually a more advanced form of an estate plan and it requires at least three parties, some of who may be served by the same person. The first party to a trust is the person who creates it known as the creator, settlor or grantor. The second party to the agreement is the trustee. This is a person who has legal title to the property and the trust and manages the property according to the terms inside the trust agreement as well as applicable state laws.

In many cases, when the title to the property must be recorded, it is listed as in the trustee’s name not as an individual person but rather as the person trustee of the X family trust. The third party to a trust document and strategy is the beneficiary. This is the person who benefits from the trust and multiple beneficiaries can be on a trust at the same time.

There can also be different beneficiaries over time. Sometimes an individual might be known as an income beneficiary, meaning that they earn interest and dividends in income on the trust. Other beneficiaries can be remainder beneficiaries, which means they will get what is inside the trust after previous beneficiaries pass away or those rights expire.   

Creating a trust can be a key aspect of your estate planning, but it only makes sense when you have worked directly with an estate planning lawyer to select the right kind of trust. Given that you can accomplish many different goals with a trust, you want to choose the right one and fund it properly to get all the benefits.