Educational Trusts Lawyer in Chicago
Trusts and estate planning in Illinois are often seen as tools of the richest families; however, this is not always the case. Trusts are also beneficial when applied to a specific purpose, such as education. By creating an educational trust for your children (or grandchildren), you can move property from your taxable assets for the purpose of paying for education needs.
Remember, an educational trust is a legal agreement, whereas you will give property to an appointed trustee for the benefit of someone else (the beneficiary). As such, when drafting and creating the trust, and laying out the specifics of the trust, it is essential to have an experienced Chicago educational trust attorney who can help provide the maximum benefit of the trust for your beneficiaries. To speak with James C. Provenza & Associates about setting up, managing, funding, or carrying out the trust, call our Chicago law office today.
Learn more about education trusts by continuing below.
Basics of an Educational Trust
When making an educational trust, there are many things that the creator of the trust should consider. Some of these considerations should include:
- Who controls the trust (trustee)
- How the property in the trust is to be used
- Who benefits from the trust (beneficiaries)
Furthermore, the grantor of the trust needs to determine when the trust should take effect. For example, the grantor can make the trust operational during his/her lifetime (a living trust) or upon the grantor’s death. If the beneficiary of the trust is very young and you are old, the best option might be to make the trust operational upon your death. If the beneficiary may need the trust’s proceeds soon, then it makes sense to put the trust into effect immediately. Funding the trust for immediate effect, however, may create gift tax consequences.
Potential Complications
The point of an educational trust is to set aside money to give your beneficiary(s) a good education, and the State of Illinois has always been accommodating when it comes to educational trusts. Nonetheless, you cannot control every aspect of the educational future of your beneficiaries. Therefore, when drafting and setting up the trust, you need to consider a few potential complications, such as:
- If the beneficiary never goes to school
- If there is property left over after the beneficiary finishes school
- If the beneficiary dies
These are all scenarios that need to be explicitly stated, and prepared for, in the trust’s drafting.
Create an Education Trust with James C. Provenza & Associates
The future of your children and grandchildren, as well as the State of Illinois and our country, depends on good education. For this reason, setting up an educational trust can help plan and prepare for the massive expenses associated with good schooling. Trusts are not tools solely of the wealthy, and by calling James C. Provenza & Associates about the possibility of an educational trust for your beneficiaries, we can go through all the details of this estate plan.
Our goal is to ensure a strong and useful estate plan that maximizes benefit for your unique financial situation. To speak with Illinois estate planning attorney James Provenza, please contact our Chicago law office today at (847) 729-3939.
