Assets must be transferred to the trust. There must be a beneficiary. There must be a trustee. The reasons are diverse. Some of the common ones include the need to hire professional managers of assets, tax planning, the need to protect family wealth from inexperienced or imprudent beneficiaries, the need to provide for disabled beneficiaries, and the need for post-death planning.
Trusts are a very powerful financial planning tool that can be useful in many different situations.
A trust may be complicated, but it may be amazingly simple too. With our next installation, we will begin looking into specific applications of this important tool. Jackie Stites is a Trust Officer with The Bank of Fayetteville. Jackie has been with the bank for 11 years.