Trusts are versatile estate planning tools for adults of all ages. Whether you’re a spouse, a parent, or single with no children, creating trusts can help you preserve and distribute current and future assets. The information below presents ways of using this tool in holding and managing your property. 

3 Reasons to Include Trusts in Estate Planning

1. Efficiency

Trusts can hold a variety of assets, including real estate, usufructs, personal property, and intellectual property rights. Items in a trust pass to the beneficiaries you name without going through probate. The transfer process is more efficient, faster, and less expensive than Louisiana succession proceedings for a will.     

2. Privacy

Placing assets in a trust gives you and your beneficiaries more privacy than transferring the property through a last will and testament, as a will offered for probate becomes a public record.

However, when assets pass through a trust, the public doesn’t have access to the beneficiaries’ identities or the nature of the items they receive. Papers creating trusts are private legal documents.

3. Protection

Trusts offer various protections depending on their type. Special needs trusts protect the rights of impaired children and adults to receive certain government benefits. Irrevocable living trusts can shield assets from creditors and pass property to beneficiaries outside of probate.

Meanwhile, revocable living trusts let you hold assets for your own benefit during your life. When you pass away, the property passes to the beneficiaries you have chosen. Testamentary trusts allow you to retain full control of your assets because they have no effect until death.

When you want advice on setting up a trust for your loved ones, turn to the estate planning lawyers at J.P. Coleman Law, LLC, Attorneys at Law. This full-service firm represents clients throughout Metairie, LA. They’re experienced in handling all kinds of estate planning, probate, and family law issues. To read what past clients say about their services, visit their website. For a free consultation appointment, call (504) 332-0062.