In Emeryville, California, a trust is an arrangement in which property is held by one person (the trustee) for the benefit of another (the beneficiary).
Trusts can serve any number of purposes. They can be set up to ensure that the child has a college fund, or to see that the beneficiary's basic needs are met, without the money being spent on frivolities.
If you want to set up a trust, you can make the beneficiary's use of the property as restricted or as permissive as you like. As a simple example, you might want to dictate that the beneficiary can only use the money for emergencies, or for basic living expenses. If the trust is carefully drafted, this is totally feasible.
The trust can also be set up to allow the beneficiary to spend as much of the money in it on anything they like. Of course, few people do this, because the trust isn't likely to last very long under such an arrangement, especially if the beneficiary is a teenager or young adult.
What to Include in Any Emeryville, CA Trust
To create a trust in Emeryville, California, 4 things are required. The first is purpose - the trust must be set up to serve some kind of objective, and it must be clearly stated in the document that creates the trust.
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.
The third element is a beneficiary. The beneficiary is a person or entity who the trust is designed to benefit. Although a beneficiary has to be named, they don't actually have to exist at the time the trust is written. For instance, if a person sets up a trust to benefit his or her grandchildren, and doesn't yet have any, the trust is valid. If and when their grandchildren are born, the rights that the trust creates will vest in them immediately.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the trust requires a "body." The body of a trust is the thing (usually, but not always, money) that is actually being held in trust, and therefore overseen by the trustee, and used to help the beneficiary.
Can A Emeryville, California Trust Drafting Attorney Help?
While the elements of a valid trust are fairly simple and easy to memorize, drafting a trust that is likely to be carried out according to your wishes can be fairly confusing. For that reason, an Emeryville, California attorney specializing in estate planning can be invaluable.
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