This week's estate planning term is the most common document used in modern estate planning -
Trust.
A Trust in the estate planning context is a legal agreement that has three parties to it:
- A Trustmaker;
- A Trustee; and
- A Beneficiary.
Under this type of legal agreement, the Trustmaker will transfer ownership of his or her assets to the Trustee who will manage the assets for the benefit of the Beneficiary. Usually when the trust is revocable the Trustmaker, Trustee and Beneficiary will be one in the same person, but when the trust is irrevocable the Trustmaker will be different from the Trustee and Beneficiary.
