A Baker's Dozen Reasons to Use a Trust

1. Trusts can shield your assets from the high cost of home care making you eligible for home health aides through the Medicaid program.
2. Trusts start the five year “look-back” for institutional care, making you eligible for Medicaid benefits to pay for a nursing home.
3. 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.
4. Trusts can provide who takes over if you become disabled – guaranteeing you get the person you choose instead of a court-appointed legal guardian.
5. Trusts can avoid a will contest from heirs you leave out or ones that receives less than they think they are entitled to.
6. Trusts give you immediate access to assets on death unlike wills which can take months and sometimes years to probate.
7. Trusts can provide supervision and protection for special needs and other children who have issues with handling financial matters.
8. Trusts can reduce and often eliminate estate taxes for couples with taxable estates.
9. Trusts can avoid guardianship proceedings for gifts made to grandchildren.
10. Trusts can avoid the problems of locating unknown heirs or dealing with heirs abroad.
11. Trusts can move assets out of your estate for income and estate purposes.
12. Trusts can avoid the expense, delay and publicity of a probate court proceeding for your property in New York and out of state.
13. Trusts can protect the inheritances you leave from your children’s divorces, lawsuits and creditors.

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