In Danville, 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. However, the property is owned by the beneficiary, the person for whose benefit the property is being used.
Trusts serve a number of purposes. For example, 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 example, you might want to dictate that the beneficiary can only use the money for emergencies, or for basic living expenses. If the trust is carefully drafted, this is totally feasible.
The trust can also be set up to allow the beneficiary to spend as much of the money in it on anything they like. Of course, few people do this, because the trust isn't likely to last very long under such an arrangement, especially if the beneficiary is a teenager or young adult.
What to Include in Any Danville, VA Trust
There are 4 distinct elements that must be present for any trust to be valid in Danville, Virginia. The first element is the purpose - in drafting a trust document, the purpose that the trust is serving must be articulated.
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 Danville, Virginia 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 difficult. Therefore, you should probably seek the assistance of a Danville, Virginia attorney if you wish to set up a trust.