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Plan For The Future With A Compassionate Texas Trust Attorney

It is never too early to plan for the future, especially when it comes to your loved ones. Since 2001, The Brinkley Law Firm has been providing compassionate and professional estate planning services in Beaumont and the Jefferson County area. Dean Brinkley, an experienced trust attorney, leads our team. He can assist with creating, amending and administering trusts. Our services are sophisticated, yet we deliver them with a friendly approach.

Trusts: Your Options And The Benefits

A trust allows you to manage and distribute your assets while also providing protection and flexibility. Trusts can minimize taxes, help your estate avoid probate and provide for your loved ones. There are several types of estate planning trusts available, including:

  • Revocable trusts: Flexible and can be changed during your lifetime
  • Irrevocable trusts: Permanent and often used for tax benefits
  • Living trusts: Created during your lifetime to manage your assets
  • Testamentary trusts: Established through your will after your passing

Attorney Dean Brinkley can help you determine which type of trust is appropriate for your situation and guide you through the process of setting it up.

Trusts For Specific Situations

You can also choose trusts that are specifically tailored to address certain situations that may arise. A few examples include:

  • Special needs trusts: These trusts hold assets for a beneficiary with special needs to ensure that they are not disqualified from benefits that they may be receiving. A direct inheritance can sometimes disqualify them because it prevents passing the means test.
  • Pet trusts: These are set up to help cover the costs of caring for a pet after the owner passes away.
  • Charitable remainder trusts (CRTs): A CRT is generally set up as an irrevocable trust. It is initially designed to create an income stream for a beneficiary, but a charity is named to receive any remaining assets after that income stream is no longer viable or necessary.
  • Qualified personal residence trusts (QPRTs): These trusts can be useful for reducing estate or gift taxes, specifically by removing a person’s home from their personal estate.
  • Grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs): With a GRAT, the trust holds certain assets and pays a fixed annuity to the grantor, but only for a specific amount of time. When that time expires, assets still within the trust pass to the beneficiaries without gift or estate taxes.
  • Generation-skipping trusts: This type of trust is used when someone wants to pass assets to a grandchild, bypassing their own adult children. Generally, the beneficiary must be at least 37 ½ years younger than the grantor. This can help when addressing estate taxes, which will not have to be paid twice.

Our team can assist you with setting up any of these trusts, depending on your estate planning needs.

How Can Trusts Help Avoid Probate?

Assets placed in a trust are not considered part of the probate estate. When the trust creator (grantor) passes away, the trustee manages the assets in accordance with the terms of the trust. This bypasses the probate process.

How Do Trusts Protect Beneficiaries In Complex Family Situations?

Trusts can help beneficiaries avoid family infighting by clearly outlining how to distribute assets and to whom. This can also prevent formal legal contests. Trusts can also address issues like blended families, ensuring that children from previous marriages receive assets according to the grantor’s wishes.

What Are The Tax Benefits Of Setting Up A Trust?

Setting up a trust can provide several tax benefits, including:

  • Reducing estate taxes
  • Minimizing capital gains taxes
  • Providing income tax savings

Additionally, you can structure trusts to minimize income taxes by shifting income to beneficiaries in lower tax brackets.

What Is The Role Of A Trustee?

When you create a trust, you name a beneficiary, which is the person who will receive assets from the trust. But you also name a trustee, who is the individual authorized to access the trust and make the appropriate distributions. For instance, you may name one of your grandchildren as the beneficiary of a trust set up for their college education, but you must also pick a trustee to make payments to the college or withdrawals to be used for related expenses, like room and board, books and school supplies. 

The trustee’s role is to ensure that the correct distributions are made and that the money in the trust is used as intended.

Take The Time To Consult A Beaumont Trust Lawyer

Do you want to protect your family’s finances? Act now: Contact us at The Brinkley Law Firm. We can help you establish detailed estate planning trusts. Please call us at 409-359-8895 or send us an email to speak with a trust lawyer today.