In Valley, Alabama, a trust is an arrangement in which property is held by one person (the trustee) for the benefit of another (the beneficiary).

A trust can be set up for just about any reason. One of the most prevalent reasons is to ensure that a person perpetually has enough money to avoid going broke, but not enough that they can avoid getting a job, or spend all of the money on things they don't need. This can be accomplished by drafting a trust agreement so that only permits the beneficiary to access a limited portion of the money per week, or per month.

A trust can make as many or as few allowances as the person creating it wants. For example, a trust could be set up which permits the beneficiary to spend the money on educational expenses, and nothing else.

If you want, you could establish a trust with no restrictions on how much money the trustee can spend from the trust, and let the beneficiary spend all the money on whatever they'd like. If this is what you want to do, that's fine- but if the beneficiary is a young adult with spendthrift habits, you obviously might want to take into consideration the fact that they could easily spend all the money on some pretty frivolous stuff.

What to Include in Any Valley, AL Trust

There are 4 distinct elements that must be present for any trust to be valid in Valley, Alabama. The first element is the purpose - in drafting a trust document, the purpose that the trust is serving must be expressed.

Second, every trust, to be valid, has to assign a trustee. This is the individual or other entity (such as a corporation) who oversees the property that embodies the trust. They possess and control the property, and are responsible for seeing that it is used according to the purpose of the trust.

Third, there must be a named beneficiary. This is the person, persons, or entity who is truly benefiting from the trust. This person or entity must be clearly identified, or must be identifiable at some point in the future that can be objectively defined.

Fourth and finally, the trust must include what is known as the "corpus" or "body." The corpus is the money and/or property which is being held in trust. For a trust to be valid, the corpus must be clearly identified.

Can A Valley, Alabama Trust Drafting Attorney Help?

While it's fairly easy to list off the basic requirements for a valid trust, actually creating and implementing one can be fairly perplexing. Therefore, you should probably seek the help of a Valley, Alabama attorney if you wish to set up a trust.