When we hear words like ‘revocable trusts’ and ‘beneficiaries,’ we tend to zone out a little. Our only exposure to these terms has probably been American television shows where it is always the wealthy friend who has a trust fund! They walk around in their expensive furs just waiting to turn 21 so they can inherit the contents of the trust set up by their granters. Well, TV has got a few things right. It is possible to set up a revocable trust such that the beneficiary doesn’t get access to it until a certain age—but it is not just the loaded few who should consider them as viable options.
If you want to remove assets from the reach of creditors, reduce estate tax, and transfer assets to a minor or an irresponsible family member, you should be looking into setting up a revocable trust in Queens.
Here is everything you need to know about setting up a living trust in the state of New York.
A Living Trust
First off, a trust is a contract that helps you transfer assets to a beneficiary (or several) of your choice. The trustee in this contract is the middleman who takes care of the trust while managing decisions about its investment. A living trust is a subcategory and the most common type of trust people go for.A living or revocable trust is called such because you can always change, edit, or remove assets from it during your lifetime. A trustee may be responsible, but you can always have the final rights until you are alive. Plus, you can name yourself a trustee if you wish.There are multiple options for a revocable trust in Queens and you can choose the one that is best suited to your end goals. We suggest that you take appropriate counsel and rely on professional expertise before finalizing anything. Until then, here are some basics about what you will need to do.
How Do I Set Up a Revocable Trust in New York State?
If you want to set up a living trust in The Big Apple, here is what you will have to do:
Individual or Shared
Depending on whether you are single or partnered, you will have to decide what kind of trust you want to set up. If you are married, you might want to go for a joint trust for more benefits and better management.
Choose Assets to Fund the Trust
A trust is a separate legal entity, and that is all it will be until you fund it by transferring assets into it. You will need additional documentation once you have decided what to add to this magic box that makes everything invisible. You may need deeds, transfer letters, or acknowledgments in black and white.
Decide on a Trustee
To make your trust a foolproof entity, you must choose a trustee with care. Until the designated period passes, the trustee has complete control over the contents of a trust. To ensure that your assets are safe, bring in someone that you have complete faith in—maybe a family member or a close friend. Whoever you decide to name, they will take care of the assets for your ultimate beneficiary, so choose wisely.
Name Beneficiaries
We don’t need to explain this in quite so much detail, but a beneficiary is someone like Pip in Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations—a person who is the eventual receiver of the assets within a trust. Even though the trustee is officially responsible for the management of a trust, the beneficiary will be its owner after they reach a certain age (depending on the terms of the trust). You can choose one person or several people as the beneficiaries of your trust.
Create the Document
Now it’s time to create a trust document. This may be the most difficult part, so discuss with your attorney and figure out what documents you will need to enclose. You don’t want to be agitated at the last minute; see to it that all the files, legal deeds, and other certificates are readily available. Every state has its own laws and requirements, so be sure to inquire about New York in particular.
Instead of running around the city collecting information and filing applications, you can set up a revocable trust in Queens with the help of a credible attorney. Not only will they take all these tedious tasks off your hand, but they will make sure to give you advice based on their vast experience in the estate planning field.
Sign the Contract
Once the document has been created, preferably with an attorney’s help, all that’s left to do is sign the contract in front of a notary public.
Change Property Titles
After the official process is over, any property that you transfer to your trust should be renamed to reflect that the trustee is the new owner.
At the end of the day, everyone’s financial needs are different and it’s not possible to fit them all into a structure. If you have a personalized estate planning lawyer familiar with your case, you are sure to make the best possible decisions for your property and a prosperous future for your loved ones.
