In Blacksburg, Virginia, a trust is a particular 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 consistently 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 completely 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 Blacksburg, VA Trust
To set up a legitimate trust in Blacksburg, Virginia, 4 elements are necessary. First, the trust must have a stated purpose, and this purpose must be precisely laid out in the documents that implement the trust.
Second, the trust must further 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 precisely 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. But, it must really exist, and it must be identified.
Can A Blacksburg, 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 difficult. For that reason, a Blacksburg, Virginia attorney experienced in estate planning can be invaluable.