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Creating Trusts for Your Heirs in Maryland

A major way people can continue to take care of their loved ones after their death is through the creation of trusts. Before a person’s death, a trust allows them to plan and distribute their assets to their heirs with the help of an experienced Maryland trusts attorney. Creating a trust allows someone to take a hands-on approach to providing for their loved ones.

Creating a Trust for Your Spouse or Children

It is possible to create a trust to provide for both your surviving spouse and your children in Maryland. Commonly, clients create trusts to control the distribution of their assets to their children. For example, a client may stagger the distribution of trust principal so that their children receive funds at different ages such as 25, 30, and 35. Other clients wish for their children to receive control of the total of their distribution at one age, such as 25. You may determine that you want to hold your assets and trust for the lifetime of your children, allowing them to receive income but not to receive any of the principal. In that way, you preserve the assets for your grandchildren. You may also keep assets in trust for your spouse to ensure that he or she is provided for after your death.

In all cases, it is beneficial to have an experienced Maryland trusts lawyer by your side guiding you through the process.

Factors That Influence Creation of Trusts

Creating a trust for an heir is different for each person and depends on the assets that you have and the terms that you want to set in Maryland. For example, you may create trusts to address issues that arise from a second marriage or second families. Those provisions may look different from a trust for an individual who is single. You would also modify the trust for the following reasons:

  • The age of your children
  • Deciding to keep assets and a trust for your children for a longer period of time
  • Your spouse and his or her assets
  • If your spouse is incapacitated
  • If your spouse depends upon your assets to survive
  • Your age
  • Your estate planning goals
  • Your exposure to state or federal estate tax
  • Your family dynamics

How a Trust Can Protect Your Heirs in Maryland

Some trusts protect your heirs by limiting exposure of the trust principal to your beneficiary’s creditors in Maryland. Other trusts can assist you in protecting your beneficiaries by ensuring that your trust is preserved for a longer period of time so that you can pass on the wealth to future generations. Trusts can also help protect your beneficiaries by providing for an independent third party trustee, such as a trusts attorney or a trusted advisor. An independent trustee may be more objective in administering trust assets and prevent fighting among beneficiaries.

Consult With an Experienced Maryland Trusts Attorney

It is important to talk to a trust lawyer in Maryland with experience because an attorney can assist you in creating a comprehensive estate plan that best expresses your wishes for future generations, while remaining as practical and efficient to administer as possible. An attorney can also help write provisions that will assist you in accomplishing your estate planning goals, contemplate your estate’s exposure to estate and inheritance taxes, and coordinate your assets to fund your estate plan. Although a trusts lawyer will not give you financial advice, they may help you draft provisions that give you the best chance of preserving your assets to pass them on to future generations. Contact us to set up an initial consultation.

Kerri Castellini: On Working With Clients

“I enjoy assisting individuals with their estate planning needs and protecting their assets for future generations, because it allows me the opportunity to build strong relationships with clients and their families. Those relationships create the foundation to allow me to help predict what pitfalls an estate plan may face. Understanding my client’s wishes and family dynamics, combined with my knowledge of estate and tax laws furnishes my ability to help clients make wise decisions about to provide for their future.”