Personal Trust
Trusts are amazing planning tools that can be used to attain many financial goals. Inclusion of one or many of the following trusts in your own personal plan could ensure tax savings, asset protection, financial security and preservation of family relationships:

• Revocable Living Trusts
• Irrevocable Living Trusts
• Testamentary Trusts
• Life Insurance Trusts
• Charitable Remainder and Lead Trusts

A trust blends all of the benefits of professional investment management with the personal attention of a professional trust administrator. With a revocable living trust, you are guaranteed that should you become physically or mentally incapacitated, your bills will be paid, your affairs managed, and your investments monitored, thereby avoiding the impersonal intervention and expense of a court-appointed conservatorship. At death, your trust may continue for the benefit of a surviving spouse, child, or grandchildren, or distribute out to your beneficiaries under your trust document. Assets in trust at death avoid the necessity of probate.

A testamentary trust can be a vital tool for preserving important estate tax savings and as a means for managing principal and income for the benefit of your surviving spouse and/or minor children based on their needs and ability to manage money. Perhaps there are beneficiaries with "special needs". Trusts for the lifetime care of a disabled beneficiary are designed to maximize supplemental support while preserving eligibility for public health care programs. There are also trusts established to carry out family business succession plans and to take advantage of elections which reduce the burden of transfer taxes from one generation to the next.

Federal income tax laws encourage charitable giving by providing trust options that return a lifetime income benefit to the donor in exchange for an irrevocable contribution of property. This same income benefit can pass to a surviving spouse or other named beneficiary for his or her lifetime, as well. The principal of the trust will be available for the use of the charity at some point, fulfilling your goal of benefiting your favorite organizations while, at the same time, enjoying a reduction in taxes. At death, charitable gifts can provide a further reduction in federal estate taxes.