Trust for Minor vs Lifetime Discretionary Trust
This edition of the Koldin Law Center E-Newsletter is part of a series about frequently asked questions comparing legal documents, legal roles, and government benefits.
All prior newsletters are saved on our website. You can read them by clicking here.
We receive many questions from clients and readers of our newsletter asking about the differences between various legal documents, legal roles, and government benefits. In this newsletter we compare a Trust for the Benefit of a Minor to a Lifetime Discretionary Trust.
In the previous newsletter we compared a UTMA account to a Trust for Minors. The example we provided was a Trust for a minor to age 25.
The Trust to age 25 can be restricted to a particular purpose such as to be used solely for educational expenses, or it can provide the Trustee with broad discretion to spend on the beneficiary’s health, education, welfare, and comfort. Once the beneficiary reaches the age of 25, or some other age that you designate, the Trust terminates and the beneficiary receives the remaining balance in the Trust outright.
A “Discretionary Trust” is typically a Trust that continues for the lifetime of the beneficiary.
A “Discretionary Trust” is sometimes referred to as a “Support Trust.” The Trust can provide support and pay expenses of a family member such as an adult child. This is often used when a child does not handle funds well and would squander his/her inheritance. Such a trust would have the Trustee be the caretaker of the funds and use discretion as to when and how the funds should be spent.
You would typically designate beneficiaries to inherit the remaining balance of the Discretionary Trust when the lifetime beneficiary dies.
A “Discretionary Trust” can be created as a stand alone Living Trust, as part of your Will, or as part of the beneficiary provisions of your Irrevocable Trust or Revocable Trust.
For more information about Beneficiary Trusts, please see our website by clicking here.
At the Koldin Law Center, P.C., located in East Syracuse, New York, we have over 50 years of experience helping individuals plan for immediate crisis and long term care.
The Koldin Law Center, P.C. limits its practice to the specific field of Elder Law which includes estate planning and Medicaid law.
Our attorneys are available to discuss your estate planning options, including the advantages and disadvantages of Revocable Trusts and Irrevocable Trusts, along with other estate planning considerations including a Will, Power of Attorney, and Health Care Proxy.
When the Koldin Law Center, P.C. handles a Medicaid case, we not only handle the entire application process, but we also review asset protection options with our clients. We review with our clients who are already in a Nursing Home options to protect some or all of their assets beyond merely establishing Medicaid eligibility.
We do not charge a fee for the initial consultation. We welcome your children, family attorney, accountant, and/or financial planner to be present at the initial consultation.
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We have been told by many clients who are in a crisis that they wish they had known about our firm much sooner. We are proud of the many families we have helped in times of crisis.
We are also proud of the many families we helped avoid financial crisis by doing estate planning in advance.
We all share the responsibility for making our family and friends aware of the planning options available to them.
Your referral to the Koldin Law Center could make a major difference in the lives of your family and friends if they are someday faced with a long term illness.
Remember that the Koldin Law Center offers many services for clients of all ages. Our services range from basic estate planning such as a simple will to complex estate planning including asset preservation planning.
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