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

A trust can be set up for just about any reason. One of the most common reasons is to ensure that a person always 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 allows the beneficiary to access a limited portion of the money per week, or per month.

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. So, if you want them to only be able to spend it on education, for example, you can do that.

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 Abbeville, SC Trust

To set up a valid trust in Abbeville, South Carolina, 4 elements are required. First, the trust must have a stated purpose, and this purpose must be clearly laid out in the documents that establish 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.

Third, there must be a named beneficiary. This is the person, persons, or entity who is actually 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 actually 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 actually exist, and it must be identified.

Can A Abbeville, South Carolina Trust Drafting Attorney Help?

While the elements of a valid trust are relatively simple and easy to remember, drafting a trust that is sure to be carried out according to the wishes of the person making it can still be complicated. For that reason, a good Abbeville, South Carolina attorney specializing in estate planning and the drafting trusts may prove invaluable.