At first glance, this trust looks pretty much like any ordinary Revocable Living Trust. So, you may be asking, “What is the difference?
So like with every trust, we transfer some or all of your assets into this trust. Of course, “irrevocable” means you can’t get it back again. But this “irrevocable” trust has sort of a back door. In reality, this type of trust can give you back some of the assets you put into it (shhh!), such as income from rental properties or bond funds…so you can have the money you may need later on. But the nice thing about it is that this back-door is not open to your creditors or Medicaid; they can’t get in! The assets in this type of trust are off-limits to them.
Most of the people who come to see me are people who’ve done right by their communities and by their families. They’ve worked hard, planned well, raised their kids, and their homes are paid off. They just want to be reassured that some of their assets will be available when they need them – for them only! In this case we can make a provision to have the right to receive the income from the trust. It’s a hybrid between an irrevocable trust and a revocable trust. And it allows you the flexibility either one by itself might not.
In fact, there are a number of more-flexible types of trusts and trust provisions that are helping our clients, because they can be tailored to a variety of situations. And if you don’t at least look into them…you may be at risk for losing everything you’ve worked for.
But you don’t have to be at risk! And you don’t have to be confused.
At the Law Offices of Alice Reiter Feld & Associates, we’ve been minimizing risks for South Florida families for over 35 years. We practice Elder Law – and only Elder Law. And we’ve designed pretty much every type of trust you can imagine for our families…along with other estate planning tools such as wills and asset protection, and assistance with long-term care planning, Medicaid, and the VA.
Give us a call. We can help protect you, too.
