Trust Lawyer Danbury, CT Explains The Advantages of Establishing a Trust

Without speaking to a trust lawyer, you may not be aware of all the advantages of establishing a trust. A trust lawyer from Sweeney Legal, LLC can review you and your family’s needs and financial situation to determine how a trust may be of benefit to you and to your heirs.

There are two main kinds of trusts and one may be more suited to you than the other. In addition, your Danbury, CT trust lawyer can identify other estate planning options that may be of additional interest to you. Call us today to schedule a confidential meeting with an experienced trust lawyer who can also address your questions and concerns. Depending on the nature and size of your estate, you may only need to meet with a member of our legal team once before your attorney can take over and complete the necessary paperwork prior to your review.

What Does a Trust Attorney Do?
A trust lawyer in Danbury, CT will set up a trust on your behalf. A trust attorney can provide relevant legal help to whomever you name your trustee, the person who is in charge managing the trust. You can even name a lawyer as your trustee. This can be useful if your estate is large and complex, or if you want to ensure that your trustee is an impartial third party.

Is a Will Sufficient?

For some people, the writing of a will is all they need insofar as estate planning. For others, their needs are more complicated and their assets more substantial. Ultimately, it will depend on your goals. If you do not own much in the way of assets, and their distribution to your heirs will not be subject to harsh tax penalties, a will may be sufficient. It’s important to meet with a trust lawyer to make this determination. Before committing to working with a trust lawyer in Danbury, CT from our firm, you are welcome to take advantage of a free initial consultation.

Tax Advantages and Penalties

An estate tax can be burdensome to your heirs when your assets are distributed after your death. A trust lawyer from Sweeney Legal, LLC can work with you to identify potential issues and avoid them with carefully considered tax options. A trust can offer tax advantages on its own or in conjunction with other estate planning tools.

In some cases, taxes and probate can be avoided if assets are co-owned with another individual. Similarly, retirement benefits can be assigned to an heir automatically after your passing. Talk to a Danbury, CT trust lawyer from our firm about setting this up. The process is straightforward and easily handled by an experienced trust lawyer from Sweeney Legal, LLC.

Does a Living Trust Avoid Estate and Probate Taxes?

A revocable trust (one that can be altered during your lifetime) does not avoid estate taxes which are applied by your state or the federal government. A special kind of living trust called an AB trust passes assets directly from one spouse to another and avoids estate tax, as a Danbury, CT trust lawyer can explain. Living trusts do not pass through probate and so your estate will not need to pay any probate fees or costs.

Revocable Trusts Versus Irrevocable Trusts

These two types of trusts are similar to one another but have distinctively different advantages and disadvantages. As with other estate planning tools, choosing which one is most suited to your needs will be dependent on your current and anticipated situation in the near and distant future. A trust lawyer from our legal team can sit down with you and describe both in greater detail.

Contact a Danbury, CT Trust Lawyer from Sweeney Legal, LLC

Planning one’s estate does not have to be stressful or an emotionally draining experience. We can help you complete the process quickly and provide you with peace of mind knowing that your loved ones will be taken care of after your passing. Call us at Sweeney Legal, LLC today to schedule an appointment with a trust lawyer Danbury, CT clients recommend who can help preserve your legacy for future generations.

Different Types of Trusts

As a trust lawyer Danbury, CT has confidence in, we see this scenario all the time. You have a family, own a home (with a mortgage), have developed a small nest egg through either an employer-employee funded 401K, IRAs, own a hefty life insurance policy, and are in possession of a few valuable antiques. Do you need a trust? What kind of a trust? A qualified trust lawyer Danbury, CT families turn to can best answer your questions and provide you with the trust and estate planning advice that best fits your life situation.

There are several different types of trusts. Here are a few and a quick explanation of what they accomplish.

Bypass Trust may be best for you if you have a large estate (greater than $11 million). This type of trust may help couples avoid estate taxes. Each spouse can pass a certain amount of money to their heirs without paying an estate tax. Using a bypass trust may expand the amount they can transfer. Ask a trust lawyer Danbury, CT residents want about the limits as the laws may change from year to year.
Life Insurance Trust is a great place to park your life insurance policy if your net worth is large, because if you own your life insurance policy, the death benefits may be subject to estate taxes. You might consider letting the life insurance trust be the owner of the policy. You then gift money to the trust and the trust pays the premium for the policy. When you die, the trust is the beneficiary of the life insurance policy, and the beneficiaries of the trust are your heirs. Another benefit of this trust is that instead of the beneficiaries receiving the death benefits of your policy all at once, you can direct the trust to spread out the distribution of the funds or hold them for certain events or ages, at your discretion.
Use a Charitable Remainder Trust if you have plans to contribute some of your assets to a charity when you die. If you create this trust you can contribute to the trust now and be eligible for a tax deduction. The trust is in the name of the charity. If you name yourself as an income beneficiary, you may give yourself an annual income. The charity gets the remainder of the money in the trust after you’re gone and it’s tax-free. If your heirs think that this trust takes away from what they will inherit from you, purchase a life insurance policy in the same dollar amount as the charitable gift, and name your heirs as beneficiaries of the policy.
A Qualified Terminal Interest Trust is a trust used to make sure that after you die if your spouse remarries but then dies, your children will receive the remaining assets instead of the money going to the new spouse. This trust does give income to your spouse while they are alive; however, after they die the assets remain in the trust or are distributed to the surviving children.
A Medicaid Asset Protection Trust can transfer your assets to a trust to permit Medicaid eligibility and still allow you to have access to the funds for life. It is a very helpful took in Medicaid planning.
Create a Living Trust if you want to protect your assets while avoiding probate. While you are alive, you transfer the title to property out of your name and into the name of the trust, as a trust lawyer Danbury, CT relies on can explain. This is a convenient way to organize all your property in one place making it easier for your heirs after you pass.
- Basics Of A Living TrustA revocable living trust includes the following:
  - The name of maker of the trust (known as the grantor, settler and/or trustor);
  - The name of the individual responsible for managing the trust and its assets (the trustee – this is typically yourself);
  - The name of the individual who will take over the responsibility of managing the trust after you pass away (the successor trustee);
  - The names of the individuals or organizations you leave your trust property to (the beneficiaries);
  - The name of the individual in charge of managing the assets you leave to minor beneficiaries (also called the trustee).

How Much Does a Trust Attorney Cost?
A trust lawyer in Danbury, CT charges based on the service being provided. To simply create or review a trust, your attorney may charge an hourly rate or a flat fee. To act as the trustee, a trust attorney generally charges by the hour. Rates will vary depending on where you live, so be sure to set a rate with your attorney up front.

Talking to your parents about a subject as sensitive as estate planning can be like walking on eggshells. Many times, serious discussions never take place in a family, to begin with and bringing up the fact that they are getting older and it’s time to prepare for the inevitable can be painful for all involved. However, the alternative is not talking to your parents at all and this can result in the scrambling to find bank accounts, insurance policies, investment information, a will causing a lot of unnecessary stress in a time where emotions are already high.

The law firm of Sweeney Legal, LLC specializes in estate planning and can provide your family with the necessary documents, help you gather all the important papers and accounts and counsel you all in the advantages of having a well-planned estate.

No one wants to face their own mortality – sometimes parents or even adult children may feel like they are acting greedy by bringing up the issue. Older parents may not want to talk about it at all. Parents may fear aging and facing what may happen if they become incapacitated and/or require long-term care in an assisted living facility. Talking about this, along with how the family will financially handle these possibilities, can be uncomfortable at best.

A Danbury, CT trust lawyer can start those conversations with your parents and siblings, presenting the information in a factual, non-threatening manner. There are several important items that the firm will address with your family:

Having a will and/or trust is critical if the parents want input in how their estate is divided. Questions to be addressed include will the estate be divided equally among all the children, is there a provision for any pets, are there any bequests to charities or friends, are there any specific items (jewelry, furniture, vehicles, etc.) that you want to bequest to certain individuals, have any of your children taken loans from you and how do you want them repaid, and is the family home to be sold?
Life insurance policies, annuities, investments such as IRAs or other retirement accounts should have beneficiaries listed on these items and they should be current. There should also be a secondary beneficiary.
In the event your parent becomes incapacitated, a durable power of attorney (DPA) goes a step further than what is permitted with a revocable trust and allows the designated agent to file taxes on behalf of the parent, deal with insurance and credit card companies, withdraw funds from their IRA or other retirement accounts, make deposits, etc.
A living will or advance health care directive (AHCD) allows your parent to choose an agent or agents to act on their behalf when making health care decisions when the parent cannot. It is a legal document that lists the parent’s wishes in regard to medical intervention near their end of life. Decisions regarding blood transfusions, resuscitations methods (intubation), chemotherapy, etc. Their wishes concerning organ donations can be addressed in the directive.
It is important to know where to find everything. A trust lawyer in Danbury, CT will organize all the estate information for your family.

Call a Trust Lawyer Danbury, CT Clients Recommend

Talking about one’s mortality can be one of the most awkward and difficult conversations you will have with your parents. Contact the law firm of Sweeney Legal, LLC and we can help get that conversation started.

Creating the trust that fits your financial and family circumstances is best left to the professionals. Sweeney Legal, LLC estate attorneys have many years of experience in designing trusts and wills. Contact a trust lawyer Danbury, CT can look to in their time of need to set up a consultation.