There are many reasons to have a trust, chief among them is to avoid probate and protect assets. That alone is enough to make a trust worthwhile in many situations, especially if you have a lot of assets. The following is a brief list of the reasons people choose to to have a trust:
- Avoid probate – Probate is the court process for administering an estate when someone passes away. It can be quite expensive and time-consuming. You can prevent assets from going through probate with a trust.
- Privacy – A trust will help ensure that your estate passes to your heirs privately. If you pass away without a trust, your estate will need to go through probate, which is a public court process.
- Protection from creditors – When your trust is irrevocable, it will protect assets in the trust from creditors.
- Reduce family conflict – If you have a trust that clearly articulates your wishes and a trustee to carry out those wishes, it makes it more likely that your heirs will respect your wishes and not fight amongst one another.
- Preserve family wealth – In a trust, you can dictate how you want your heirs to inherit. You can set up the trust so that your heirs receive distributions over time. There is a great amount of flexibility when it comes to distributions.
Examples of items you can place into your trust include bank accounts, real estate, insurance policies, investment assets (e.g., stocks, bonds etc.), cryptocurrency, tangible investment assets (e.g., gold, silver, antiques, stamps, artwork etc.) limited liability company membership interest, patents, copyrights, and tangible personal property (e.g., furniture, jewelry etc.).