Estate Planning as a Career

Asset protection works best when you start before you have a significant number of assets that need protection. You need to fix the roof before the rains pour in. The earlier a trust is created, the greater the benefits.

The time you usually worry about your assets - when facing a divorce, lawsuit, creditor demands, or a tax lien - is when you can kiss your stuff goodbye. If you have not protected it by then, it’s not your property. It belongs to whoever the judge says it does.

Trusts used to be the last thing a middle-class taxpayer had to worry about. Estate taxes were the problem of the rich. A trust, along with appropriate use of corporations and limited liability companies, means never having to give your property to the ex-anyone again.

As it stands now, with modest homes in many parts of the U.S. fetching over $1 million, trusts are the most powerful asset preservation device available. In addition, all gifts and bequests should be made and kept in trust instead of being given outright.

What we call a BCT (Beneficiary Controlled Trust) goes by a more accurate description of “Crummey Defective Grantor Spendthrift Trust”.

Crummey is the name of an individual who challenged the IRS and won, not a depiction of the quality of the trust. For that alone he deserves your respect and admiration.

In our Beneficiary Controlled Trust, the beneficiary also serves as trustee, hence the control. Crummey powers are handled by the second trustee, known as the Distribution Trustee, but all control and decisions remain with the beneficiary/trustee.

The BCT is designed to:

1. Give the beneficiary beneficial use and control of trust property without having ownership which can be reached by creditors or distributed by a judge in a divorce case. You can’t lose property in a divorce settlement if you don’t own (more…)