A trust in Clay County, Missouri is a legal arrangement for the management of property by one individual, for the benefit of another. In the simplest possible terms, if property is held in trust, it is possessed and controlled by one person, but it is technically owned by another individual, who benefits from the property.

You might want to set up a trust for a wide number of reasons. It can be set up to guarantee that a child will have money for college, for instance, and that the child will only be able to use the money for that purpose.

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

If you want, you could formulate 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 Clay County, MO Trust

There are 4 things that have to be present in every trust for it to be legitimate in Clay County, Missouri. First, the trust must have a stated purpose. Whatever purpose you intend the trust to serve, you should make it very clear when drafting the document.

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 further has to name a beneficiary. This is the individual or entity (such as a charitable organization) who is going to benefit from the trust.

Finally, the trust needs to actually be composed of something. A trust document must name the money or property which is actually being held in trust, which is known as the "corpus" or "body" of the trust.

Can A Clay County, Missouri 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 perplexing. For that reason, seeking the counsel of a reputable Clay County, Missouri attorney to help you set up a trust is probably a good idea.