Good reasons for a trust

What can a trust do?

Here are just a few options:

1. Provide asset management (think: drug addiction, creditor issues, spendthrifts, divorce, gambling addiction, elder abuse concerns, inability to manage finances, susceptible to scammers, disabled beneficiary, business planning, etc.)

2. Act as a Will substitute (think: assets are distributed upon the grantor’s death according to the trust provisions)

3. Provide provisions to remove, replace and appoint trustees (think: grantor can lay the ground rules)

4. Assign roles and tasks to different trustees, advisors, fiduciaries and non-fiduciaries (think: different people can handle different functions of the trust)

5. Provide for a “pot trust” or for separate shares where there are multiple beneficiaries (think: different ages, risk tolerances, short term and long term needs, spending habits, etc.)

And, various other options . . .