Through an initial consultation, we help you determine the most appropriate trust to protect your assets and meet your goals.

Revocable Living Trust (RLT)

Establishing a Revocable Living Trust is a way to avoid the cost, delay, and public nature of the probate process for distributing assets.  This is especially important if you own real estate in more than one state, or if you own a business that would need to be managed and/or sold without interruption if something happened to you.

An RLT also allows you to set instructions for using your assets during a period of incapacity.

A Revocable Living Trust enables you to:

• Set up an individual trust or a joint trust with a spouse
• Manage your assets—such as a home, bank accounts, investments, a business—in a trust that you set up, as the Grantor.
• Maintain complete control of your trust assets during your lifetime, as the Trustee.
• Define how your affairs will be managed should you become incapacitated.
• Name a successor trustee, who upon your death can distribute your assets to beneficiaries according to your instructions or hold them in an ongoing trust.
• Leave assets to beneficiaries in trust to protect them from creditors, predators, and their own poor decisions.

QTIP Trust

A Qualified Terminal Interest Property (QTIP) Trust is a way to leave assets to a surviving spouse for use during their lifetime, but also preserve them for the ultimate beneficiaries, usually the children of the deceased spouse.  The surviving spouse is entitled to all of the income that is produced by assets in a QTIP Trust, and also may continue to live in a home left in trust.  The surviving spouse cannot sell the trust assets, give them away, or leave them to others through a will.  Upon the death of the surviving spouse, the ultimate beneficiaries receive the assets in the QTIP Trust.

A QTIP Trust is often used by blended families, in order to ensure that children from a previous marriage are not disinherited, in whole or in part, by a step-parent.  It can also be useful to ensure that a family business is passed on to the next generation.