Trusts Flashcards
Corpus
aka principle
property of the trust
Grantor
trustor
transfers property into and dictates the terms of a trust
Trustee
Party to whom the property of a trust is transferred
receives legal title to the property
manages and distributes income accordingly
HOLDS LEGAL TITLE
Beneficiary
party for whom the benefit of the trust is created
will receive direct or indirect benefit
Simple Trust
trust is conduit for forwarding income
benes report income
DNI-distribute net income
-provides trust with a deduction for the amount distributed
-limits the portions of income taxable to benes
-ensures the character of the distributions remain the same to benes
-typically no distribution of corpus
-no charitable gifts
-no double taxation (trust receives a deduction)
-deduction is equal to the lesser of the amount distributed to benes or DNI
Trust taxed as separate entity if:
- irrevocable
- no retained control by grantor
- income is accumulated (by document or trustee election)
Complex trusts
- Income must stay or be accumulated
- Income accumulated is taxed to the trust
- Income distributed is taxed to the bene
- Corpus can be distributed
- Can make charitable gifts
Revocable
Grantor reserves the power to terminate or change
Grantor is typically trustee
Typically becomes irrevocable at death
Irrevocable
- can’t be altered or terminated without court approval
- rarely includable in grantors gross estate
- can’t terminate and reclaim the property
Crummy Trust
- irrevocable with demand rights
- makes a gift of future interest (most commonly life insurance) gift of present interest for annual exclusion purposes
- Each time a contribution is made to the trust the benes have a withdrawal right good for 30days
- amount available to temporarily withdraw is = to annual exclusion or value of gift transferred
Revocable Living Trust
Inter vivos trust
- avoids probate
- grantor is trustee
- at death trust becomes irrevocable or terminates
- typically no income tax consequence at grantors life
- Not a gift
- all income taxed to grantor
Provides:
- organization of property
- lower cost than probate
- alternative to guardianship or conservatorship
- privacy
- speed of property disposal
- avoidance of probate
Disadvantages
- Fees to prepare
- Funding burden
- Longer creditor period
Testamentary Trust
- Can protect trust property from successive estate tax levies
- created in a will - doesn’t take effect until the testator’s death
- because it is funded after death, the ASSETS ARE subject to probate
- most transfer tax planning can be accomplished this way
- may be revoked by the testator anytime before death
- can provide for the professional management of trust assets
- for purposes of the CFP, a complex will has a testamentary trust
Totten Trust
- special bank account, not really a trust, that is payable upon death
- made irrevocable by the grantor’s death
- trust avoids probate and is similar to a POD
Spendthrift Trust
- prohibits transfer of beneficiaries interest
- states it is not subject to claims of creditors
Bypass Trust
B Trust
- property transferred at time of decedents death (usually equal to exemption)
- postmortem control over assets
- nonmarital trust that permits the surviving spouse to have some interest in trust assets but not enough to warrant inclusion in the survivor’s gross estate
- they bypass the surviving spouse’s estate
- income to surviving spouse for life and then assets are not included in the surviving spouse’s gross estate
- spouse can’t have more than 5 or 5 provision or HELMS to avoid inclusion in surviving spouses estate
- at death of surviving spouse, remaining assets pass estate tax free to bene.