Attorneys Who Understand Trusts
A trust is a powerful legal instrument for transferring assets. However, for many people, the idea of a trust is complicated and even intimidating. While it is a powerful tool, there are risks involved and it’s not for everyone. It is important to work with an experienced lawyer who can help you determine whether a trust is right for your situation and help you through the process.
At Coffin, Coffin & Blackman, our lawyers have decades of experience serving clients throughout central Indiana with a range of different trust instruments.
What Is A Trust
Basically, a trust is a legal instrument for transferring your assets. You, the grantor, establish a trustee to manage the trust’s assets and transfer the assets according to the directions in the trust itself.
The Benefits Of Trusts
A revocable living trust is a powerful legal tool that can help you streamlining the administration process of executing the trust while avoiding probate. This can be a tremendous gift to your family because the probate process can be extremely complicated, taxing and potentially contentious.
Types Of Trusts
Our attorneys can help with all types of trusts, including:
- Revocable living trusts: A revocable living trust is one that allows you to retain control over the trust as long as you are alive. You can change the terms or revoke the trust at any point.
- Special needs trusts: As the name would suggest, a special needs trust is a trust established to provide for someone with special needs, usually a son or daughter. The trust has similar provisions for what assets are to be transferred and in what way, under what circumstances, etc. The primary benefit for a special needs trust compared to other types of trust instruments is that a special needs trust preserves eligibility for other important sources of benefits, whereas other types of trusts might not.
- Trusts for any other purpose: One of the primary benefits of a trust compared to a simple will is that a trust allows you to retain a tremendous amount of control over the transfers. You can establish a trust that accomplishes a certain specific goal. You can make a trust that is set to pay off when the beneficiary graduates from college, gets married or buys a home, for example. Another option is to make your trust pay out to a beneficiary for a specific purpose.
There are many options available to you for transferring assets in a trust. Our lawyers can help you.
Trust Administration
As mentioned earlier, trusts can avoid probate to allow the transfer of assets to be more efficient. But there is still a lot for a trustee to do. If you have been named a trustee or another type of fiduciary, our attorneys can help you with the management of the trust and accounting. We can help you satisfy any debts owed by the trust, locate and notify the beneficiaries and transfer assets appropriately. We can help you remain in compliance with all relevant trust laws, and we handle litigation of trust disputes as well.
Contact Our Lawyers
Our experienced attorneys can help you with any type of issue relating to trusts. Email us today or call (765) 342-5506.