A financial planner notes in a recent Forbes piece that, rather than being an anomaly, trusts are common fixtures in the plans he creates for clients. In fact, states Rob Clarfeld, it is unusual for him “not to recommend incorporating one or more trusts” in the work he does for varied individuals and families.
We get what Clarfeld is talking about at the Pleasanton Law Offices of Connie Yi, PC. His point regarding the centrality and utility of trusts in estate planning echoes information we impart on our website to our valued readers contemplating the execution of well-tailored plans. We stress that trusts “can be an integral piece of estate planning for many individuals, couples and families in the Bay Area.”
Legions of planners know and appreciate that, although a wide swath of the public persistently views trusts as instruments crafted only by the truly well-heeled to shelter and pass along great wealth for multiple future generations.
Clarfeld notes, though, that there are actually “many more families of modest means” that benefit from trust creation than there are Rockefellers and Vanderbilts.
And those families employ trusts to promote many varied interests beyond mere generational wealth transfers. Here are just a few trust-linked benefits:
- Asset protection trusts provide protection against creditors
- Special needs trusts provide in detailed fashion for select loved ones
- Spendthrift trusts safely parcel out funds to beneficiaries who might otherwise prematurely deplete them
- Charitable giving trusts define and control contributions to preferred nonprofit organizations
Those are just a few representative examples in a much larger universe of trusts that can be created to advance highly varied interests.
Further information concerning the value and flexibility of trusts can be provided by an experienced estate planning legal team.