In Castle Shannon, Pennsylvania, a trust is a setup under which property is possessed by one person or entity, to be used for the benefit of another.

Trusts serve a number of purposes. For example, they can be set up to ensure that the beneficiary (say, a child) will consistently have enough money to live off of, but will be unable to spend it all on frivolities.

Regardless of the purpose for which you're establishing 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. Therefore, if you want them to only be able to spend it on education, for example, you can do that.

If you want, you could create 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 Castle Shannon, PA Trust

There are 4 things that have to be present in every trust for it to be valid in Castle Shannon, Pennsylvania. First, the trust must have a stated purpose. Whatever purpose you intend the trust to serve, you should make it extremely clear when drafting the document.

Second, the trust must also name a trustee. The trustee is the person who is really going to administer the trust, and has possession and control of the property while it is the subject of the trust.

Third, there must be a named beneficiary. This is the person, persons, or entity who is really 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, there must be some money or property which is really going to be held in the trust. This property is referred to as the "corpus" (body) of the trust, and can be just about anything. However, it must really exist, and it must be identified.

Can A Castle Shannon, Pennsylvania 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 confusing. Therefore, you should probably seek the assistance of a Castle Shannon, Pennsylvania attorney if you wish to set up a trust.