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Trust Benefits

Trusts bring six key advantages to wealth planning.

Trusts align your assets with your intent  

Trusts can help you do exceptional things.  

A trust is one of the best ways to ensure your assets are managed according to your wishes.

As a wealth planning tool, trusts offer six key advantages:

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Trusts offer more control over the specifics

You set up the rules of the trust – what assets go in it, when, and for whose benefit. You can specify at what age(s) your heirs get trust assets and/or income, and for what purposes.

Trusts can deliver substantial tax advantages

A trust can help improve tax-efficiency at all levels (federal and state estate taxes, capital gains taxes upon transfer, and even state income taxes depending on trust location). Specialized trusts can hold your most valuable assets (a business, restricted stock, real estate), so they are out of your estate but can still be used to support you and your spouse, and then your heirs and/or charities after you are gone.

Trusts provide expediency

Assets in a trust bypass probate court, which can take a year or longer, especially if your assets are located in multiple states or abroad.  

A trust offers distinct privacy advantages

Trust contents and terms stay private as long as the trust is in existence, which can be longer than a century (for trusts based in Washington State) or forever (South Dakota.

By having a trustee, you have an advocate for your intentions

What happens if you become disabled or incapacitated? For assets transferred to a trust, your trustee can step in and manage the assets according to what you have specified. After you are gone, the trustee can see to it that the trust is operating as intended for your beneficiaries.

A trust articulates your legacy

A trust creates a legacy by putting your intent in writing and carrying that intent out over time. As you specify the terms of the trust, you are aligning what you know and what you value with your asset base. In that alignment, you are likely to gain a strong sense of conviction about what is most important to you.

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