The Many Benefits Of Trusts

Trusts are valuable and versatile tools that can be applied to a variety of estate planning goals. Trusts can:

• Avoid the cost and delay of probate for your beneficiaries
• Keep your family’s financial affairs private
• Direct how inheritances can be used
• Protect assets
• Minimize Oregon estate taxes

Here are just a few examples of trusts the attorneys at Schmidt & Yee, P.C. can create for you. We serve individuals and families in Aloha, Beaverton, Hillsboro and other communities in the Washington County area of Oregon.:

Living Trusts

A living trust gives you complete control of your assets while you are alive and enables your beneficiaries to avoid probate after you die. It is revocable, meaning you can change it or revoke it at any time. Because a living trust does not have to go through the public process of probate, it keeps your family’s financial affairs private.

Our estate planning attorneys can advise you about the ways you can use living trust in your estate planning.

AB Trusts And Disclaimer Trusts

Your estate may be subject to Oregon estate taxes even if it is not subject to federal estate taxes. While the federal estate tax applies only estates of more than $11 million per person, Oregon’s state estate tax applies to estates of more than $1 million per person.

A marital deduction trust, also called an AB trust, establishes a trust whose assets automatically go into an irrevocable trust upon one spouse’s death. This decreases or eliminates the estate tax burden. A surviving spouse can utilize a disclaimer trust also to avoid an estate tax burden.

Special Needs Trusts

A special needs trust is a way to provide assets to a disabled family member who needs ongoing support from government programs such as Medicaid or Supplemental Security Income (SSI). If you give assets directly to a disabled family member, they will likely become ineligible for a needs-based government program.  However, if you place those assets in a special needs trust for the benefit of your family member, they would retain eligibility for SSI and Medicaid.

Spendthrift Trusts

A spendthrift trust can be a valuable tool to control the disbursement of inheritance funds to a beneficiary.  By placing assets in a spendthrift trust, you can protect those funds from creditors, a beneficiary’s ex-spouse, or from being wasted by a beneficiary.  You can control when and how an inheritance is spent.

Find Out More

We invite you to find out from a trust lawyer how trusts can benefit you and your estate. Give the Aloha office of Schmidt & Yee, P.C. a call at 503-642-7641 or contact us online to schedule an initial consultation.