Preserve Your Legacy With Confidence
There are many types of trusts available for estate planning purposes. Your age, assets, debt, marital status and more all come into play in determining what type of trust, if any, would meet your needs.
What is a trust?
A trust is a legal arrangement or contract set out in a written document between a trustee and a settlor that specifies how the trustee should handle or manage money and or assets for the benefit of another person; i.e. the beneficiary of the trust. A settlor is a person who funds and establishes the trust. A trustee is a person named by the settlor to handle the money and the trustee not only must follow the instructions in the trust document, but he also must conform to the legal requirements of a fiduciary under Illinois law.
A trust can be a simple testamentary trust incorporated into your will and typically used to direct the trustee on how to manage money for your minor children or it can be a separate insurance trust to provide for children instructing the trustee how the proceeds of life insurance should be used and it may be required in order to comply with provisions of a divorce judgment or it can be a living trust designed to avoid probate for certain assets or a more complicated living trust designed to avoid estate taxes on big estates.
When you are wealthy enough to have questions about estate tax planning (over 13 million in assets), attorney Cellucci can discuss the advantages of creating a living trust for purposes of testamentary disposition and tax avoidance.