A trust agreement is a legal document that allows the trustor to transfer the ownership of assets to the trustee to be held for the trustor's beneficiaries. While the trustee becomes the legal owner of the assets, the trustor retains equitable ownership of the assets. Trust agreements are created for many reasons:
A trust is a fiduciary relationship in which the trustor gives the trustee the right to hold title to assets or property for the benefit of a third party called the beneficiary. Trusts provide legal protection for the trustor’s assets or properties to ensure that they are distributed according to the trustor’s wishes.
Trusts also reduce paperwork and might avoid or reduce inheritance or estate tax issues.
There are three main types of trusts:
Here is more on types of trusts.
Meet some lawyers on our platformTrust agreements are often used to determine how a person’s money should be managed and distributed while that person is alive or after their death. Trusts are used to protect assets from creditors and can dictate the terms of an inheritance for beneficiaries. Trusts can provide for a beneficiary who is underage or has a mental disability that may impair his ability to manage finances. However, trust agreements can require time and money to create and they cannot be easily revoked.
Trust agreements are generally used for the following purposes:
You can read more on tax benefits of trusts here.
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There are a few components of a trust agreement you can follow while writing a trust agreement:
You can seek legal services, consulting services or accounting services while creating your trust.
In a trust, the ownership of the property depends on the type of the trust agreement. Generally, the trustee holds legal title to the property for the benefit of the beneficiaries and the beneficiaries have equitable ownership rights. The trustee is also known as the fiduciary and must follow fiduciary duties and obligation laid under the trust agreement. The trustee has the duty to manage the trust for the benefit of the beneficiaries as agreed upon in the trust agreement. In an irrevocable trust, the property is solely owned by the trust.
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