Basic Reminders About How Trusts are Not Just for the Wealthy

Trusts have been used as financial planning devices for years now. They date back to around 4000 B.C. in Egypt when individuals would be appointed to manage the property of others. Ancient Romans were the first group to use trusts for charitable purposes, and English law added other developments to trusts that are still in place today.

Some people have the misconception that trusts are only for the wealthy, but that is not completely true. Any grantor can establish a trust by deciding which assets to place into the trust, who receives the benefits of the trusts, how the trust will be managed and operated, and who will manage the trust and safeguard the assets.

The purposes that can be served by the trust include: reducing income and estate taxes, managing wealth more effectively, ensuring that assets are professionally managed, standing in for children or grandchildren until they can handle money you want to transfer, preventing businesses from being sold unnecessarily, protecting beneficiaries from making bad decisions, and ensuring that amounts pass privately to individuals at the right time.

See Greg Roberts, Trusts: Not Just for the Wealthy, Aiken Standard, May 19, 2012.

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (Professional Legal Marketing (PLM, Inc.)) for bringing this article to my attention.