November 06, 2018
The Castle Trust™ as an Asset Protection Trust- Berry’s Bites
The Castle Trust™ is a form of modern Asset Protection Trust that can protect against long-term care costs. Not enough professional advisors understand or know about the trust. Too often as Certified Elder Law Attorneys, we are having to educate client’s professional advisors on how the trust works.
Transcription
Chris Berry here with Berry’s Bites. Today we’re going to talk about The Castle Trust, which is a form of asset protection trust. It’s different than a lot of trusts. A lot of people are familiar with a living trust which can avoid probate and control the distribution upon death. What The Castle Trust can do is avoid probate, control the distribution upon death, but now it builds in asset protection, protecting against lawsuits.
Then really what the big benefit is, is that it can protect against the devastating cost of long-term care. For example, a nursing home these days is about $8,000 to $12,000 per month. A lot of people are concerned about long-term care costs because we’re living longer than ever. That’s really what elder law is all about.
Unfortunately too many other professionals don’t understand this concept of using a trust to protect against long-term care costs. For example, a lot of times I have to educate a financial planner or a tax person on the value of this type of asset protection trust. They’re used to the old types of trust that we used to use for estate tax purposes, or maybe they’re familiar with some of the irrevocable trusts that protect just against Medicaid where you don’t have much flexibility.
Well, The Castle Trust is a form of irrevocable trust where you still have flexibility to change beneficiaries, change trustees. It’s very similar to a revocable trust in that manner. It does start the clock for Medicaid purposes. If we are able to fund the trust, move the assets into the trust, then everything inside the trust is protected from that nursing home or Medicaid spend down.
The trust, it’s a form of asset protection trust. Works very similar to a revocable trust, but it builds in asset protection for lawsuits as well as long-term care costs. Hopefully that was helpful.