Phoenix Estate Planning Attorney: Trust Preparation
Life Insurance Trusts ∙ QPRT ∙ Children's Education Trusts ∙ Living Trusts
Effective estate planning often includes the use of one or more trusts. Trusts can serve many purposes. Similar to a last will and testament, a trust allows you to control how your estate is distributed to beneficiaries. However, a trust affords you a far greater degree of control concerning when and how the distribution process is to take place. Additionally, trusts can achieve personal goals, such as minimizing tax liability, avoiding probate, protecting assets for vulnerable beneficiaries, and much more.
Attorney James F. Byrne, Jr., of James F. Byrne, Jr., PLLC, can help you understand the advantages and disadvantages of trusts and help you determine how to achieve your estate planning objectives. For more information, and a free initial consultation to discuss your options for setting up a trust, contact James F. Byrne, Jr., PLLC, in Phoenix, Arizona.
Intuitive Trust Preparation That Meets Your Needs
At James F. Byrne, Jr., PLLC, we provide personalized, individual service to each client to ensure that the trusts prepared are adequately tailored to their specific estate planning goals and circumstances. Working with trust attorney James F. Byrne, Jr., our clients benefit from 35 years of legal experience and in-depth knowledge of revocable trusts and irrevocable trusts that can meet our clients' needs. These trusts may include:
- Irrevocable life insurance trust: Designate your life insurance trust as the primary beneficiary to your life insurance to keep this asset out of your estate's probate assets.
- Children's education trust: Control how assets are used by beneficiaries by designating the trust for a specific use, such as to further their education.
- Qualified personal residence trust (QPRT): Deed your home to your qualified personal residence trust in order to keep your home out of your estate and minimize taxes. You can name yourself as a primary beneficiary and a loved one as a successor beneficiary to the trust upon your death.
- Charitable remainder trust: A charitable remainder trust is a tax savings trust that allows you to provide assets for a beneficiary for a length of time that you choose (such as until their death) and remaining assets will be distributed to the charity of your choosing.
- Other trusts: Various other trusts, such as a special needs trust, children's trust, or other trust may meet your unique goals.
Trusts Moderate the Distribution of Your Estate
In the preparation of a trust, you designate which assets are to be given to whom and the manner in which they are to be given. For instance, a trust can keep your 14-year-old son from being given a lump sum of $50,000 in the event that you were to die suddenly. Instead, a "trustee" (whom you designate) would turn over those assets at a time of your choosing, like the son's 21st birthday.
You can also help your beneficiaries avoid probate through the use of a living trust that distributes an estate before death. Trust lawyer James F. Byrne, Jr., will work closely with you to determine which trust arrangement best suits your goals and intentions for your estate.
Estate Planning for Unmarried Couples in Arizona
Without effective estate planning, unmarried couples are not afforded the same inheritance rights as married couples. At James F. Byrne, Jr., PLLC, we recognize that there are many personal reasons that Arizona couples choose not to marry — seniors who will lose necessary government benefits if they marry, same-sex couples who are not yet afforded the right to marry in Arizona, or other couples who simply choose not to marry as a matter of personal choice. We help these couples achieve their estate planning goals through the use of living trusts and other estate planning.
If you would like to set up a free initial consultation, contact James F. Byrne, Jr., PLLC. We serve clients in Phoenix and throughout Maricopa County.
