July 25, 2024
3 Reasons You May Want a Castle Trust as part of Your Michigan Estate Plan
Trusts are not for everyone. That said, there are 3 main reasons you may want to look to a Castle Trust ™ as a piece of your Michigan estate plan. Estate planning is important because it creates the rule book for your life, if you are incapacitated, as well as the rule book upon death. Do you want to rely on the government’s rule book or do you want to create your own rule book?
1) Avoid Probate
With a trust, like a Castle Trust ™, you can avoid probate upon death. Most people are familiar that they want to avoid probate. It’s a court process. It’s messy. It’s easily avoidable. By setting up a trust and moving assets into the trust or naming the trust as a beneficiary, the assets can avoid probate.
Why Avoid Probate?
Most people want to avoid probate because it is costly, time consuming and public….and easily avoidable if you plan right.
On average, 3-5% of assets going through probate get eaten up in costs. Whether it’s filing fees, publication fees, inventory fees, and sometimes attorney fees. All can be avoided.
In Michigan, probate is time consuming. By statute, a probate must stay open for 5 months and typically stays open over a year.
2) Control Distribution
With a trust, such as a Castle Asset Protection Trust, you can control the distribution of assets upon death. You can determine the manner and nature of how you leave assets to your beneficiaries, children or loved ones. By ensuring the trust is funded properly, either as an owner or beneficiary, you can ensure the assets go in the manner they are supposed to to your beneficiaries.
You can even offer a lifetime of asset protection to your beneficiaries if you set up your trust correctly and include Legacy Inheritance Trust provision language in the trust.
3) Asset Protection
There are two forms of asset protection that the Castle Trust asset protection trust offers. First it can protect against lawsuits. Second, and this is a biggie, it can protect against the devastating cost of long-term care. Whatever is moved into the asset protection trust starts a Medicaid 5-year look back period, where if you can make it five years, everything inside the trust would be protected from the nursing home or Medicaid spend down.
Nursing home care these days cost between $8,000 – $12,000 per month. With a properly set up and funded Castle Trust, your assets and your family can be protected from the devastating cost. This type of protection is not available in your basic revocable living trust that too many families have. It’s important to work with Certified Elder Law Attorneys (CELA) when it comes to planning for the second-half of life.
Is a Castle Trust Right For Your Family?
Create your estate plan with the multiple benefits of life insurances with us. At Castle Wealth Group, we build a perfect strategy for your retirement, including income planning, investment planning, tax planning, health care planning, and legacy planning. Visit our website or call us at 844.885.4200 or email us for your financial advice.