1. Your co-trustee or successor trustee can manage your assets in the trust if you lose your mental capacity. If you lose your mental capacity, have dementia or are in the hospital in a coma who will manage your financial affairs and pay your bills? If you have a trust with your spouse, then he or she will be able to deal with your assets that in the trust. If you are the sole trustee of your trust and you lose your mental capacity then the person named as your first successor trustee will be able to manage all the assets in the trust for you.
2. Your trust names the person or people who will inherit your assets. If you die without a will or a trust, your assets will go to the person or people determined by the law of your state of residence. Your state's law may give your assets to one or more people you don't want to get the assets. To learn who will inherit your assets if you are an Arizona resident and die without a will or a trust see my article “Who Inherits Your Assets if You Die without a Will or a Trust.” The main reason to have a trust is because it names the person or people to inherit your assets if you die and the law of your state of residence will not apply.
3. Warning: If you have a significant other he or she will not inherit any of your assets that remain in your name after death if you die without a will or a trust that names him/her as your heir. For your significant other to inherit your assets you need to have a will or a trust that names your significant other as the person who inherits your assets.
4. Your trust can name alternate heirs. The trust can say I leave all my assets to my son Homer, but if he dies before me then all my assets go to Bobby.
5. Your loved ones can inherit your assets in a life-time asset protected trust. The trusts we create provide that when the current beneficiary dies or both beneficiaries who are married to each other die, an irrevocable asset protection trust will be created for each heir so the inherited assets cannot be obtained by your heir's creditors, ex-spouse or a bankruptcy court.
6. If your heir is a special needs person your trust will create a special needs trust for that heir. Our revocable living trust provides that when an irrevocable trust is created for the future beneficiaries if a beneficiary is a special needs person that heir's trust will automatically become a special needs trust so heir will not have assets in the heir's trust prevent the heir from getting government benefits.
7. Trust assets avoid probate. If you die without a trust that owns your assets your heir(s) may have to open an expensive, time-consuming public superior court probate that names a personal representative (aka executor) who has the power to transfer your assets to your heir(s). The assets that pass through a probate are not asset protected. If you have a trust and transfer assets to the trust then on your death the assets go automatically to your heir(s) named in the trust agreement without the need for a probate.
8. You can name a trusted person, two people or a trust company to be trustees to manage inherited assets. If any heir is a minor the minor cannot manage their inherited assets, but your trust could name one or two people who will manage the minor child's inheritance until the child reaches an age you specify in your trust agreement. If your heir is a person who should never manage his or her inherited asset (child is a drug addict, unable to manage money or has a spouse that would blow the inheritance) you can name one or two people or a trust company to be the trustee and manage the child's inherited assets in the trust.
9. Your trust could reward a beneficiary who achieves a goal stated in the trust agreement. Your trust could say if a child graduates with a degree from a four year college or university the child gets a bonus payment from the trust in an amount stated in the trust agreement.
10. To provide for grandchildren if your child dies. Our trusts provide that if you die and your child inherits assets and that child dies after you the deceased child's trust assets will automatically go to the deceased child's children (your grandchildren) in asset protected irrevocable trusts created for each grandchild.
11. Your trust can provide for the care of your pets. We can include a pet trust in your trust that provides that a person you name can be the pets' caregiver or the person who hires and oversees the caregiver. The pet trust can authorize trust funds to be paid to the caregiver and to pay pet expenses.