The Benefits of Putting Your Home in a Revocable Trust
By Spiro Verras
A home is both a financial asset and a place with personal meaning. A revocable trust may help provide continuity in its management and eventual transfer, but the trust and deed must fit the ownership, family circumstances and Florida homestead rules.
How a revocable trust can...Have You Ever Heard of an Incentive Trust?
By Spiro Verras
You may want an inheritance to support a loved one's education, independence or other worthwhile goals. An incentive trust can connect certain distributions to defined achievements or uses. Thoughtful drafting matters because a condition that seems clear today may operate unexpectedly years from now.
How an...Setting Up an Irrevocable Trust
By Spiro Verras
An irrevocable trust begins with a very personal question: What would you like these assets to make possible? The answer might be lasting support for a loved one, thoughtful gifts to the next generation, or a plan that coordinates family priorities with taxes and future...
Trustee Responsibilities
By Spiro Verras
Serving as a trustee means accepting responsibility for property held for others. The trust document is the starting point, but applicable law also supplies duties and limits. A clear understanding of both helps the trustee make decisions, maintain useful records and communicate with beneficiaries.
Administer the...Considerations When Choosing a Trustee
By Spiro Verras
A trust can provide ongoing management for property and thoughtful support for beneficiaries. Choosing the trustee is therefore as important as choosing the distribution terms. The right person or institution should be able to carry out the plan with sound judgment and consistent attention.
Understand the...Exploring the Upsides and Downsides of a Living Trust
By Spiro Verras
A revocable living trust can be a useful part of an estate plan, particularly where continuing management, privacy or property in several states is important. Deciding whether it suits your family requires an honest look at both the benefits and the ongoing responsibilities.
What a living...Will Versus Living Trust
By Spiro Verras
A will and a revocable living trust can both express wishes about who should receive property after death. They operate differently, however, and they often work together. Comparing their roles is more useful than assuming that one is always better.
What a will doesA will directs...
Can You Fund a Trust With Out of State Property?
By Spiro Verras
A trust can hold real estate located outside the state where the trust was created. That can be useful when a family owns a second home, rental property or land in more than one state. The important work is to transfer the property correctly and...
Can a revocable trust avoid probate?
By Spiro Verras
Yes. A revocable trust can keep appropriately funded assets out of probate and give your chosen successor a framework for managing them. The key is to connect the document with the property. Each asset needs an ownership or beneficiary arrangement that carries out the plan.
Things to Know Before Executing a Will
By Spiro Verras
Preparing a will is an opportunity to make thoughtful choices about your property and the people who may help administer it. Before signing, it is useful to review both what the will says and how it fits with the rest of your arrangements.
Know which property...