The term trust lawyer does not apply to attorneys that you trust, because you can trust any attorney and any filled. A trust lawyer such as Theus Law Offices, is a lawyer who is going to help you create and keep up with the necessary paperwork to define a trust for your estate. A trust, unlike a will, allows your surviving family members to avoid the probate process. In fact, trusts are actually kept out of public record, they are totally private. Trust might include provisions to lower estate taxes so that your loved ones can receive more of what you leave to them, and trusts are useful documents for people who have large estates and plan to give out differing gifts upon their death to different family members.
The downside of a trust is that they can be expensive and that the documents are much more complicated to draw up and ensure the validity of. It is possible to write your own trusts, and have a trust lawyer go beyond the basics and delve deeper into your unique situation, but it might be better for you especially if you have a complicated estate to have a lawyer help you set up your trust from the start.
If you have children or adult children that have special needs, trust terms can be created to protect and provide for them. I trust is one way that you can ensure that your children are protected after you are gone. You can also discuss ways to control your wealth and protect your legacy from creditors or beneficiaries that might misuse their inheritance.
A trust lawyer, can also help you understand the different types of trusts. Two well-known trust types are revocable and your revocable, but there are other types of trusts such as credit shelter trust, charitable remainder trust, generation-skipping trust and many others. Each type of trust serves a different purpose and will serve a different type of person.
Not only can your trust lawyer, help you with setting up your trust, they can also help you in naming a professional fiduciary. If you do not have someone in your life that you are comfortable having to serve as your trustee of your trust, you can assign somebody else to serve as trustee and handle details of management. This person would be in charge of distributing your trust and your will after you pass away.
Trust administration, whether it is somebody who is assigned outside of the family, or somebody who is in the family, must notify all beneficiaries and the government about your death. They must notify the Social Security Administration, the health department, Veterans Affairs if you are a veteran, life insurance companies and health insurance companies, mortgage companies, banks, and other financial companies. They are going to be in charge of managing the entire trust including assessments of property values, ensuring that all outstanding debts and bills are paid to full, distributing the beneficiary’s assets, complying with state and federal law, and litigation if there are any contestants to the trust.