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A Baker's Dozen Reasons to Use a Trust
- Trusts can shield your assets from the high cost of home care making you eligible for home health aides through the Medicaid program.
- Trusts start the five year “look-back” for institutional care, making you eligible for Medicaid benefits to pay for a nursing home.
- Trusts can ensure the inheritances you leave will stay in the bloodline for your grandchildren and not end up with in-laws and their families.
- Trusts can provide who takes over if you become disabled – guaranteeing you get the person you choose instead of a court-appointed legal guardian.
- Trusts can avoid a will contest from heirs you leave out or ones that receives less than they think they are entitled to.
- Trusts give you immediate access to assets on death unlike wills which can take months and sometimes years to probate.
- Trusts can provide supervision and protection for special needs and other children who have issues with handling financial matters.
- Trusts can reduce and often eliminate estate taxes for couples with taxable estates.
- Trusts can avoid guardianship proceedings for gifts made to grandchildren.
- Trusts can avoid the problems of locating unknown heirs or dealing with heirs abroad.
- Trusts can move assets out of your estate for income and estate purposes.
- Trusts can avoid the expense, delay and publicity of a probate court proceeding for your property in New York and out of state.
- Trusts can protect the inheritances you leave from your children’s divorces, lawsuits and creditors.
