Asset-Protection Trust

You’ve got your Arizona living trust, Arizona living will, pour over will, and the various types of each. You’ve also got an asset-protection trust, durable power of attorney, and health care power of attorney. There are so many options when planning your future and protecting your assets, it can be incredibly difficult to determine which legal documents will work best for you. Speaking to a professional paralegal is the best way to decide, educating yourself on the documents is another.

Asset-Protection Trust

Basically, this is a fancy way of coining every legal document that goes to protecting your assets, creating beneficiaries, and securing a financial future for your family. There are two different forms of trusts, the irrevocable and revocable.

With an irrevocable Arizona living trust, ‘prevents a trust beneficiary from alienating his or her expected interest in favor of a creditor.’ A living trust beneficiary has three expectations:

Self-Settled Trusts: the settler of the trust is also the trust beneficiary
Sole Beneficiary: this is when a debtor is the sole beneficiary and has full rights
Support Payments: if the deceased was behind or negligent with child support payments, the beneficiary is responsible for obligating those back payments

Beneficiaries are the bread and butter of living trusts working properly. The beneficiary must be responsible enough to live up to all expectations set by not only the trustee, but the courts. They must:

Be able to carry out responsibilities without bias and ‘in good faith’
Be able to keep accurate accounts
Be trusted not to use the assets for own personal gain or illegally

A beneficiary is required to follow the trust according to law. They are not allowed to show bias unless that bias is in complete compliance with the terms of the living trust.

Need Help?

If you are not sure as to what legal document you currently have contact one of our professionals to help you with your estate planning. They will make sure you have all of your grounds covered and have the right legal documents that best suite your wants and needs.