Santa Clarita Trust Administrations Attorney

Protecting Your Beneficiaries & Your Assets

Among the most important aspects of a solidly built estate plan is a contingency established in the event of incapacity or another life-altering event. One reliable way to ensure that your assets are treated according to your wishes is to establish a trust.

What is Trust Administration?

When an individual creates a trust, they name a trustee to oversee their assets and make decisions for them in the event of incapacity or death.

The following are aspects of trust administration:

• Managing assets
• Distributing money
• Filing trust papers

There are often complex and time-sensitive tasks involved. The trustee is responsible for fiduciary duties, managing investments, and paying taxes on behalf of the trustor.

Who Is a Trustee?

Essentially, your trustee will be responsible for executing your plans when you are unable to do so.

Your trustee could be:

• A friend
• A relative
• Or even a legal professional

Benefits of Adding a Trust to Your Estate Plan

A trust may be a good option for your estate plan if:

• You want to avoid or minimize the probate process
• You would like your beneficiaries to inherit their allotted assets at a later date, such as at age 25
• You have a complicated family situation
• You have extensive assets
• You would like to provide your beneficiaries protection from creditors

What the Trust Administration Process Looks Like

After we have worked with you to determine your overall goals for your estate plan, we can begin by doing a complete inventory of the property and assets you would like included in the trust, as well as determining the value of those assets.

A trust can include a wide variety of assets, such as:

• Jewelry or other family heirlooms
• Art collections
• Real estate
• Stock portfolios
• Vehicles
• Investments

What Are the Duties of a Successor Trustee?

Following the death of a loved one, family members often assume the successor trustee of a revocable trust can quickly handle the affairs of the estate and immediately start distributing assets kept in the trust. However, there are numerous duties that the successor trustee must perform to probate the will and access the decedent’s assets held in the trust.

Successor trustees generally have the following duties:

• Ensuring that the specific terms of the trust are followed
• Locating and protecting trust assets
• Tracking down any life insurance policies, annuities, and retirement accounts that the beneficiary of the trust has been named in
• Appraisals of any real estate and business interests kept in the trust
• Smartly investing the assets in the trust until the time comes to transfer them to the correct beneficiaries
• Identifying creditors and paying off debts
• Determining income tax or estate tax liabilities
• Managing and distributing assets held in trust for the care of minor children

We Are Ready to Assist You

At O’Hare Law Office, we have worked with countless clients to establish and administrate their trusts. This process can be a complicated one without the proper training, but our Santa Clarita trust administration lawyer is committed to making the process as simple and straightforward as possible.

We work tirelessly to provide clients with a warm and welcoming environment so we can have the honest conversations that will lead to a trust that fulfills your needs.

Call us today at (661) 250-6861 or contact us online to get started with a consultation concerning your trust administration!