A will plays an important and necessary role in any Arkansas estate plan, but a will only does so much. While a will lets you dictate who you want to inherit your assets when you die and gives you a chance to appoint someone guardian over your children, you may have additional estate planning objectives a will does not help you accomplish.
In this scenario, Kiplinger notes that you may need to think about supplementing your will by creating one or more trusts. Different types of trusts may help you achieve different estate planning goals, but you may find it advantageous to create one if any of the following holds true.
You Want To Control Beneficiary Spending
If one or more of your named beneficiaries are irresponsible with money, you may want to move their assets into a trust so that a trustee ends up overseeing their distributions. That way, you may assert that your trustee only makes distributions in small increments, when certain circumstances come to be or what have you.
You Want Protection From Beneficiary Creditors
A trust also gives you an extra level of protection if someone wins a judgment against one of your beneficiaries and tries to take ownership of his or her assets. Assets you place inside the trust remain untouchable by your beneficiary’s creditors.
You want to avoid or reduce time spent in probate
Assets you enter into a trust also bypass the probate process, which may, in some cases, prove timely.
Creating a trust may lead to many other benefits, too, but these are some of the most common reasons you may want to think about creating one.