In Arlington, Virginia, a trust is a certain method of managing property for the benefit of another person. A trustee is able to possess and, to some extent, control the property. Nonetheless, the property is owned by the beneficiary, the person for whose benefit the property is being used.
Trusts serve a variety of purposes. For instance, they can be set up to ensure that the beneficiary (say, a child) will always have enough money to live off of, but will be unable to spend it all 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 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 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 Arlington, VA Trust
There are 4 distinct elements that must be present for any trust to be legitimate in Arlington, Virginia. The first element is the purpose - in drafting a trust document, the purpose that the trust is serving must be articulated.
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, 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 precisely identified, or must be identifiable at some point in the future that can be objectively defined.
Lastly, the trust needs to have a corpus, or body. The "body" of the trust is the property that benefits the beneficiary, and that the trustee oversees. Obviously, there can be no trust without something being held in trust.
Can A Arlington, Virginia 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 complex. For that reason, an Arlington, Virginia attorney experienced in estate planning can be invaluable.
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