In Washington County, Arkansas, a trust is an arrangement in which property is held by one individual (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.

Regardless of the purpose for which you're creating a trust, you can be sure that the beneficiary will only be able to spend the trust fund in ways you approve of. This is because a trust document, at the time of drafting, can place any restrictions or allowances you want on the beneficiary's use of the money. Thus, if you want them to only be able to spend it on education, for instance, you can do that.

If you want, you could implement 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 quickly spend all the money on some pretty frivolous stuff.

What to Include in Any Washington County, AR Trust

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

Second, the trust needs a trustee. The trustee will have possession of the property or money that is being held in trust, and will be accountable for putting it to the use that the creator of the trust intended.

Third, the trust needs to have a named beneficiary. The beneficiary is the individual who benefits from the trust.

Lastly, the trust needs to have a corpus, or body. The "body" of the trust is the property that benefits the beneficiary, and that the trustee oversees. Obviously, there can be no trust without something being held in trust.

Can A Washington County, Arkansas Trust Drafting Attorney Help?

While its' easy to list the basic elements that need to be present for a trust to be valid, the actual process of setting up a trust can be a little confusing. For that reason, seeking the counsel of a reliable Washington County, Arkansas attorney to help you set up a trust is probably a good idea.