On Dec 31 2007, 12:21*pm, jIM <noreplysoc...[at]hotmail.com> wrote:

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Once the trust is actually "funded" it probably should be invested in
something. Corporate and endowment trustees have come under increasing
scrutiny for not properly investing large cash balances. Trustees have
a fiduciary duty to act in the best interest of the beneficiaries of
the trust. What exactly that constitutes is still a VERY grey area.

Even if you want to be cautious you can still go with TIPS,
treasuries, or money market.

On Dec 31, 12:21*pm, jIM <noreplysoc...[at]hotmail.com> wrote:
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If you are talking about a testamentary trust, it wouldn't b funded
now. It would be created at your demise and funded from your estate
when it is probated.

If you are talking about a revocable living trust, you should
immediately fund it with all of your assets that don't pass by
beneficiary provisions. Depending on the language of the trust, you
can go about your normal buying/selling/investing activities with
assets in the trust instead of in your own name. E.g., you can
transfer your house and your bank, brokerage, and mutual fund accounts
to your trust. If you later want to move, you, as trustee, can sell
the house and buy another. If you want to take money from your
investments to spend on a vacation, just do it. When you pass away, a
successor trustee seamlessly takes over, and continues to manage the
trust's activities.

If you are talking about a trust fund, that's outside my area of
knowledge.

Dave

On Dec 18, 12:06*am, jIM <noreplysoc...[at]hotmail.com> wrote:
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follow up to this:

Our attorney suggested she would only create trusts for children which
were named. In the event we need to take care of kids with life
insurance monies, she suggested a trust which would provide for kids
is the right way to go. One issue she suggested is that if "unnamed"
children were the benefits of a trust, it's possible a family member
could contest the trust in court, and she suggested to avoid that
situation.

The end result is we will create a trust to take care of both kids
(twins) when they are born in June.

Here's a question- can a trust be "invested" in something? $600,000+
seems like a lot of cash "to just sit there" waiting to be spent.

According to some easy numbers- $75,000 to cover "housing allowance",
as the new guardian lives in a much smaller house that would not be
able to accomodate their current family size plus two more kids, then
$28,600 per year to care for kids ($550 per week). Assuming the
remaining principal is invested in something yielding 3%, there would
still be 200k left at age 18 for college or kids to start adult life.

Have any of you dealt with distributing proceeds of a trust and how to
plan for the disbursement of funds to minors? Comments on above?

On Dec 17, 9:06 pm, jIM <noreplysoc...[at]hotmail.com> wrote:
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I am not a lawyer, but if you have (or will be having) young children
you need to think about legal guardianship if both of you dies before
your children become legal age. The question of who should be the
legal guardian is a huge one. One of your parents? siblings? Or
best friend?

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"current wife has no interest in house 401k/IRA"- where did that
comment come from?

We each have 401k/IRAs with other spouse as primary and different
people as beneficiaries. My accounts are about 8-10X her value... as
I have been investing much longer.

Dave Dodson gave you very good advice.

I just went to an attorney for the "Cam Gere" Revocable Trust this
year. You will want to have all your Bank and Broker assets including
account numbers. My attorney charges $400/hour, so the pointless
story I told that took 15 minutes cost me $100. My attorney does
have a view of the Transamerica Pyramid worthy of a television show.

Estate planning describes the distribution of your assets when you
die. Tax planning minimizes your taxes now and in the future. Estate
planning (trust) can affect your taxes (A/B turst), but is not really
a tax shelter. Estate planning involves correctly titling your assets
and very, very carefully naming beneficiaries whether they are in a
trust or not.

Beneficiaries (such as your IRA, 401K and insurance policy) get the
money before your will or trust comes into play. It is incredible to
me that your current wife has no interest in your house/401K/IRA. If
you leave money to a beneficiary you can't then tell them what to do
with it in a will or trust. It is theirs. If you live in your house
another 15 years, it all goes to your former wife? You can name a
guardian/trustee in your trust for your children for college or until
then become 21, 25, 30 or 40 as you please.

In California an estate over $100K must go through probate and can
take a year or more to settle. A trust avoids this as it doesn't die
when you do, so there is no probate. Your trustee has immediate
access to funds for mortgage payments and utility bill, etc. I don't
know about Ohio. California is a community property state so wives
get certain benefits and trying to go against that is just asking for
trouble. Ohio is probably different.

You may want to consider keeping your IRA out of the trust. This
caused a lot of grief when I inherited one.

My estate planning included:
"Cam Gere" Revocable Trust
(Pour Over) Will of "Cam Gere" dated Jan. 1, 2007.
Final Arrangements (one paragraph, burn, scatter and party).
Trust Deeds for Real Estate titled into Trust
Advance Health Care Directive for "Cam Gere"
Durable Power of Attorney for Property for "Cam Gere".

Nolo Press has a nice book: Estate Planning Basics

Confirm everything with your attorney.

Happy Planning!

On Dec 17, 11:06 pm, jIM <noreplysoc...[at]hotmail.com> wrote:
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You probably could get good help from misc.legal.moderated. The
following is not intended to be legal advice, as I am not a lawyer.

You might consider whether to go with a revocable living trust rather
than a will. If you fund the trust will all of your assets, ideally
your estate can be settled after your demise without probate. A simple
pour-over will can direct any assets not in the trust upon your death
into it. There is some uncertainty on the future of the estate tax,
but if it comes back at the level of a few years ago, a trust with the
AB provisions can minimize future estate taxes. Another advantage of a
revocable living trust is that if you become unable to manage your
affairs, a new trustee can be appointed according to the terms of the
trust, rather than someone having to go to court to have you declared
incompetent and made a ward of the court with a conservator or
guardian. (This was a huge benefit to my brother and me when our
mother began to suffer from dementia. We did not have to humiliate her
to have a successor trustee take over her affairs.) The downside is
that a trust costs more and is a bit more complicated to manage.

If you go with a will, it could be written to establish a testamentary
trust, which is a trust that becomes active after the last of you and
your wife die, to provide for your minor children until the youngest
reaches the age of majority. This can be written to include all of
your future children, as it is not necessary to list them by name.

The rest of the package could include durable powers of attorney,
which remain in force even if you become disabled or incapicated, and
directives to physicians, where you instruct your doctor as to the
treatment you want if you have an irreversible and terminal condition.

One thing you need to know is what assets pass by beneficiary
designations. These will fall outside the control of your trust or
will, so you will need to coordinate the beneficiary provisions with
the rest of your estate plan.

Dave

My wife and I are meeting with an estate planning attorney this week.

Primary issue is getting a will done. Will and living will to be
specific. We also have some estate planning questions. I'd like to
bounce 3 questions off the board, and look for issues I don't know
about yet.

Lokking for both questions an attorney will ask us (I assume accounts
and other) and questions we should ask attorney. In an effort to go
in prepared, here are questions we are asking. If you know answers,
or what additional information is needed to ask a better question,
please let me know. State of Ohio, if that matters.

FYI- I have legal insurance through my employer which expires Dec 31.
There is a need to get some things done quickly. And my wife is
preganant with twins due in June.

1) We have life insurance monies+401k+IRA+house equity with other
spouse as beneficiary. In event both of us pass, we have discussed
who gets this money between now and June. In June, what is best way
to pass this money to children (to their new guardian, trust or other)

1a) we are unsure if we can write beneficiaries in which are not alive
yet. We are also unsure if we can create a trust now for kids which
are not born yet.

2) If the money in #1 suggests that penalties will be incurred, the
legal insurance does not constitute tax planning. Could someone shed
some light on if this issue is coming into play? What is "estate
planning" and how is that different from "tax planning"?

3) In general, when are trusts used, and is their a recomended asset
size for the trust? If both wife and I pass at same time, the estate
size would be ~750k including 2 life insurance policies being paid,
plus retirement accounts for both spouses. Remember we are having
twins, so that money gets split in half...

thx

jIM