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living trust

What is charitable giving – and is it right for you?

Charitable donations have the dual purpose of saving taxes and supporting valued causes. For individuals with substantial estates, this could mean hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax savings. Charitable trusts are an ideal way to accomplish this goal. The rationale for the different treatment of charitable trusts is that society wants to encourage charitable giving.

Typically, the same rules that apply to formation and governance of a private trust apply to charitable trusts. The primary differences include that charitable trusts must benefit a charitable purpose, that a charitable trust is exempt from the rule against perpetuities and is therefore easily modified, and that the state attorney, rather than ascertainable beneficiaries, is the primary party with standing to enforce a charitable trust.

Suitable charitable purposes include objectives like the relief of poverty (giving of property to help the poor), the advancement of Read More »What is charitable giving – and is it right for you?

If You’re a Trustee: What to Expect in the First Six Months

If you’re taking over as trustee of a deceased person’s living trust, you are not expected to get to work the day your loved one dies. Luckily, most trust and estate tasks are not emergencies and can wait a while so that family members can grieve and make decisions about things like memorial services. But within a month or so, you need to begin to collect information, bills, and documents and to organize a filing system, so that you can ultimately hand over property to the trust beneficiaries.

Read More »If You’re a Trustee: What to Expect in the First Six Months