You spend a great deal of your life amassing assets to provide for your family and make life more comfortable. However, these assets are rarely used up by the time you pass away. It is common to leave your remaining wealth to loved ones in your will, but there are many advantages to other estate planning options, such as trusts.
When you think about setting up family trusts in San Antonio, consider the award-winning lawyers at Begum Peláez-Prada PLLC. Our knowledgeable team could help ensure your assets are protected and distributed according to your wishes, giving you peace of mind and security for your family’s future.
Family trusts can take many forms, but at their foundation, they operate for the benefit of your chosen family members. The grantor is the person who establishes and deposits assets into the trust, the family members who receive assets are beneficiaries, and the person managing the trust is the trustee.
In San Antonio, family trusts can be revocable or irrevocable. With revocable trusts, you control the assets deposited into and removed from the trust, as well as the beneficiaries named and removed during your lifetime. In irrevocable trusts, you cannot modify it once it is established unless all beneficiaries agree.
Family trusts operate depending on the grantor’s wishes and goals. Since the grantor names specific beneficiaries, trusts differ in how the assets are taxed, when the beneficiaries receive their shares, and who benefits. Common family trusts include:
Living trusts are a revocable repository for assets while the grantor is alive and provides a plan of distribution after they die.
Marital trusts are irrevocable and are used to benefit the grantor’s spouse by avoiding federal taxes upon asset transfer.
Charitable trusts allow the grantor to leave assets to the family’s charity.
Generation-skipping trusts favor younger generations in a family by allowing them to avoid onerous estate and gift taxes.
Special needs trusts benefit family members receiving Social Security disability insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) because the trust assets do not breach income caps for these programs.
Spendthrift trusts impose limits on family members receiving assets when the grantor believes the beneficiary may squander them or is too immature to manage them.
Testamentary trusts arise out of the grantor’s will and are irrevocable upon the grantor’s death, with access to assets subject to a predetermined time.
Family trusts are legally binding agreements, so you should not be tempted to use a generic template to create yours. Our managing partner, Sasha Begum, and her outstanding team make estate planning—including establishing a family trust in San Antonio—all about your goals and your wish to protect your family.
Family trusts ensure the assets you have amassed are left to beneficiaries on your terms. They circumvent the expensive and emotionally draining probate process, and they are private. In probate court filings, anyone can have access to your will and see how you dispersed your wealth, but not if it is held in a trust.
San Antonio family trusts can also be structured to avoid taxes, protect disabled loved ones, and halt spending sprees with the money you leave to your beneficiaries.
Our knowledgeable attorneys take a holistic approach to your succession goals by analyzing your family dynamics and suggesting the best estate planning tools to serve you. By crafting a tailored family trust in San Antonio, you can address your family members’ unique situations.
We welcome you into our family at Begum Peláez-Prada PLLC. Our compassionate lawyer will sit down with you and listen to your wishes for the disposition of assets to your family. Call today to establish a family trust that gives you peace of mind.
