Top Mistakes People Make When Creating a Trust

Westport living trust attorneys  help you to avoid mistakes in the trust creation process. Making a trust can provide you with very important protections for your family and your wealth, but if you make errors when you create a trust, you will be unable to benefit from the protections that this powerful estate planning tool offers to you. 

Nirenstein, Horowitz & Associates can help to ensure that you do not make any errors when you create your trust. We can work with you to determine if trust creation is actually the best choice for your situation and can guide you through the entirety of the process so you will get all of the benefits and protections you expect.

You should give us a call to find out more today or read on to find out about some of the most common errors that people make when trusts are created.

Mistake: Not Making a Trust

One of the biggest mistakes people make is not realizing that they need a trust at all. It’s a commonly held misconception that trusts benefit only people who are very wealthy. This simply is not the case. Many middle class people are able to benefit from making a trust so they can protect their assets in case they need costly nursing home care or so they can more quickly transfer wealth to the next generation.

Mistake: Waiting too Long to Make a Trust

You need to create your trust while you are of sound mind and you need to have time to fully fund your trust before something happens to you. If you wait too long and you get sick or pass away, you could lose out on the chance to make a trust and get all the protections and benefits that trust creation could have provided you.

If you are making a trust to protect your assets in case you require nursing home care, you also need to act in a timely manner. Nursing home care is not covered by most insurance, so if you don’t want to end up paying out of pocket, you’ll need Medicaid.

Medicaid is a means-tested benefit, and there is a five year lookback rule that applies, which results in temporary disqualification of benefits in cases where assets were transferred within five years of the time Medicaid nursing home care benefits are needed.

This means if you moved assets to a trust within five years of applying for Medicaid benefits, you could end up disqualified from coverage. You want your trust in place well before you require care if you’re going to be using an irrevocable trust to protect your wealth.

Mistake: Making the Wrong Trust Type

Many people don’t realize there are different kinds of trusts to use for different purposes. For example, a living trust allows for assets to be transferred much more quickly compared with the probate process. It does not, however, protect your assets if you must go to a nursing home or allow you to avoid estate tax.  You don’t want to think the trust you have in place will protect you when it actually won’t, so you should work with an experienced attorney to make certain that the trust you create is the right one.

Mistake: Failing to Fund a Trust

When you make a trust, you also have to go through the process of funding it. Funding a trust require transferring ownership of assets to it. This can have tax implications and other legal and financial implications in certain circumstance, such as when property is acting as collateral for a mortgage loan. Nirenstein, Horowitz & Associates can help you to go through the process of formally funding your trust so you can make sure that the trust owns the assets that you need it to.

Getting Help from Westport Living Trust Attorneys

Westport living trust attorneys at Nirenstein, Horowitz & Associates can provide the personalized one-on-one assistance that you and your family need to make a trust that protects your assets and allows wealth to pass seamlessly on to the next generation.  We have extensive experience with creating all different types of trusts as well as with other estate planning tools so we can help you to put together the plan that is right for you.

To find out more about the assistance we can offer, join us for a free seminar today. You can also give us a call at 860-548-1000 or contact us online to  get your personalized plan underway.