In Rockwall, Texas, a trust is a setup under which property is possessed by one individual or entity, to be utilized for the benefit of another.

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.

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 instance, you might want to dictate that the beneficiary can only use the money for emergencies, or for general living expenses. If the trust is thoroughly drafted, this is totally feasible.

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 Rockwall, TX Trust

To implement a legitimate trust in Rockwall, Texas, 4 elements must be present. The first element is purpose - the property being held in trust must be there for a reason. Your trust can serve just about any lawful purpose you can think of.

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.

The third required element to make a valid trust is the beneficiary or beneficiaries. Because a trust, by definition, is set up to benefit someone or something, that entity must be identified in the trust. Nonetheless, if the person(s) meant to benefit from the trust do not yet exist, they can still be legitimate beneficiaries, as long as they are part of an identifiable class of people, and can be easily identified if they are born. For instance, you could set up a trust to benefit your grandchildren, even if you don't actually have any grandchildren yet.

Lastly, and perhaps most notably, 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 utilized to help the beneficiary.

Can A Rockwall, Texas Trust Drafting Attorney Help?

While the elements of a valid trust are fairly 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 Rockwall, Texas attorney experienced in estate planning and the drafting trusts may prove invaluable.