Trust Attorneys in Jonesboro Working Hard to Protect Your Assets

Trust attorneys can play several roles in helping you to plan for your future. One of their responsibilities is to help you make a plan to manage and protect your assets. Placing assets into trusts to allow for reducing estate taxes, avoiding probate, and determining how your heirs will obtain your assets is a great way to make sure you and your family are best prepared for the future.

OMG Law Firm consists of a team of attorneys that have experience in all things regarding estate planning, wills, and trusts. We have multiple years of experience surrounding complex Arkansas laws pertaining to estate planning. We are knowledgeable and prepared to work with you to make a plan that is the best fit for you and your family. Contact our Jonesboro, AR offices today at 870-336-6505 to speak with our team to discuss your specific questions and get a plan in place.

Why is Having a Trust in Place Important?

Setting up a trust allows you to transfer your property to your loved ones immediately after your death, potentially saving them a lot of time, money, and hassle in probate courts. Property left through a will can be tied up for months or years in probate court, while property laid out and managed through a trust can be distributed to the beneficiaries that you designate almost immediately, and usually without the help of attorneys.

In Arkansas, you can transfer real property by using a transfer-on-death deed, which can keep your home out of probate without using a trust, but if you have other assets that need to be managed or dispersed, these are best held in a trust.

How Do I Make a Living Trust In Arkansas?

There are a few steps that you can take to work with a knowledgeable estate lawyer to create a valid and enforceable trust. The first is choosing whether to make an individual or a shared trust.

Shared trusts are typically used by couples to allow them to avoid separating the property they own jointly. One of the other advantages of a shared trust is that upon the death of one party, the property left by one grantor to the survivor stays in the living trust without transfer being necessary. With a separate trust, the property left to the survivor usually is first transferred to the trust’s advisor and then to the survivor’s living trust to avoid probate.

There are some advantages to setting up an individual trust, however, if you and your spouse own several separate assets. This situation can arise when you have not been together for a significant period of time with your spouse. Therefore you each may own multiple separate assets rather than shared ones. You may each decide to be conscious of an inheritance or of gifts given to you that you wish to keep separate upon death. Another aspect of individual trusts is that you both wish to continue to be in control of your own trust property. With a shared trust, each of you has control over all trust property while you are alive.

Next is deciding what property is included in the trust (also part of choosing whether or not to have an individual or shared trust) as well as who will get the trust property. You will also want to designate a successor trustee. This person is responsible for managing the trust assets after your death, or should you become incapacitated and unable to manage things for yourself. It can be common to choose a spouse, a grown child, or a trusted friend. Bear in mind that this task can be difficult and stressful and isn’t for everyone.

Creating the document puts all of the above pieces together, and then finalizing it includes getting it notarized, as well as changing deeds or titles of any of the trust property to reflect the ownership change because it is now the property of the trust.

When Would a Trust Not Apply To Me?

There are a few circumstances where a trust wouldn’t make sense for you. For example, in cases where you rent rather than own, you have no children and do not own any significant assets, a trust isn’t typically going to be necessary for you. These circumstances are less common, but they do happen.

Why Do I Need an Attorney?

Hiring an attorney is not for everyone. There are some rare cases in which it can be beneficial for you to handle this on your own. There are, however, many things to consider as to why having an experienced attorney to help you create trust can be incredibly beneficial. The costs upfront to have an attorney help you are more than if you were to do it yourself; however, hiring an attorney can save you and your heir’s money down the road as you can rest easy knowing it was done correctly and following all legal expectations in the state of Arkansas.

Even in the case where your trust is straightforward and seems rather simple to you, it can be beneficial to have an experienced attorney review what you have come up with, offer their professional perspective, and help you to make sure you have thought of everything that may come up in the future based on their years of experience in handling these cases.

Contact OMG Law Firm at our Jonesboro, AR offices today at 870-336-6505 to speak to one of our experienced attorneys regarding the creation or review of your trust. We are happy to help you make sure you have thought of everything and that it is done accurately, which can save your family time and possible costs in the future by making sure your trust is sound and legal.