Who are the different irrevocable trust beneficiaries and the professionals you need to work with to ensure that your trust is fulfilling its intentions within legal and tax guidelines? In this video Laura Kuntz CPA/PFS, MBT explains who and what to look for.
Transcript
When you have an irrevocable trust, you have a relatively unusual instrument. Not everybody in America has an irrevocable trust. An important thing to think about is, do you have the right CPA help? Are you going back to your attorney for advice at the right times, for example as trust law changes or for questions on administration? But also, how are the expenses paid out of the trust? Is the trust bearing its own expenses and then personal expenses are born personally? You don’t want to mix the two, because then that trust can lose its estate tax free status.
Then also, how is the trust invested? Oftentimes, these trusts are invested for income to the income beneficiary, who might be you — the income beneficiary, and even access to principle if needed, but also for what’s legally called the remainder beneficiary, i.e., the folks who will get the money after you pass on. All of those people have legal standing, and their interests may need to be taken into account. Investing properly for you, which is so critically important and the intention of the trust, but also recognizing that there’s perhaps a balance that also treats the remainder beneficiaries properly and basically keeps everybody out of legal trouble, both now and down the line, is important.
I’m a CPA. I’ve got a Master’s in tax. We’ve got a very talented team, a lot of CFPs. As a result, attorneys and accountants have referred a lot of this type of work to us.
