St. Augustine Trust Attorney

Trust Lawyer in St. Augustine, FL

There are a number of different estate planning tools that can be useful for achieving your objectives, but one of the most versatile and effective is a trust. Trusts have several important advantages, including the ability to manage and move things in and out of the trust and the ability to protect the assets in the trust from the probate process. While effective, trusts can also be complex, so it’s important that you work with a St. Augustine trust attorney.

At the Law Office of Douglas A. Oberdorfer, P.A., our legal team of St. Augustine estate planning lawyers can help you establish a trust that keeps your assets safe and provides for your family after you’ve passed.

Hire a Trust Attorney

Trusts are powerful tools for estate planning and asset management in St. Augustine, FL. However, they can also be complex and can require more regular administration than something like a will. To take advantage of everything that a trust has to offer, you will want to have a qualified lawyer create, modify, and manage the trust.

A trust attorney can help you establish a trust. Depending on your objectives, you may want a single trust or several. There are, for instance, different kinds of trusts, such as revocable trusts, irrevocable trusts, charitable trusts, special needs trusts, and others. Trust attorneys can help you better understand what kinds of trusts and how many will be helpful in your situation.

Trusts allow you to distribute assets to beneficiaries upon certain conditions, even while you’re still living. For example, your children could gain access to a trust when they turn 18.

There are also complex laws around the creation and structuring of trusts. It’s critical that your trust is set up properly so that you can avoid issues later when it is administered and managed. A poorly designed trust may also be susceptible to legal challenges. We help design well-crafted trusts that will operate as you expect them to.

Trusts are an ongoing process as well since they will need to be managed and modified as you add or remove assets from the trust, change how beneficiaries will be handled within the trust, or make other adjustments. These modifications are something else you can count on your lawyer for help with. The more effectively these situations are handled, the more difficult it will be to dispute the trust, and the less you will need to be concerned about conflict over your estate when you’re gone.

Funding a Trust: Making it Work

When properly funded, a trust can help your family avoid Probate and achieve your estate planning goals. Trust funding simply means transferring assets into the trust so that the trust, rather than you, owns them. A signed trust will not do anything you want it to do if your largest assets are not transferred or funded into it. Your St. Augustine trust lawyer can help you create a funding plan based on your specific situation and goals. Trust funding may include:

• Updating your asset list, such as real estate, bank accounts, brokerage accounts, investments, business interests, personal property, etc.
• Coordinating the retitling of accounts
• Managing Florida real estate transfers into your trust, which may require recording documents with the appropriate County Clerk of Courts
• Reviewing beneficiary designations on retirement plans, life insurance, etc., to ensure they are consistent with your trust
• You can set up a comprehensive provision so that any property you obtain after establishing the trust becomes automatically titled in the trust.
• Establishing a habit of trust maintenance so that any future accounts you open, or real property you buy, or sell are funded into the trust.

Trust funding is important because assets that are not owned by the trust will have to go through Probate. If you live in St. Augustine, that could mean filings and/or disputes with the St. Johns County Clerk of the Circuit Court – Probate Division located at 4010 Lewis Speedway, St. Augustine, FL 32084. Proper funding can help you avoid involving this office unnecessarily.

Trust Administration and Trustee Responsibilities

Trust administration is the process of managing trust assets once the trust has been created and funded. Trustees have a fiduciary duty to manage trust assets and follow the terms of your trust. Typical trustee duties include:

• Identifying and protecting trust assets
• Communicating with beneficiaries and keeping good records
• Paying expenses, debts, and taxes
• Managing trust investments prudently
• Providing accounts to beneficiaries, and to the Court if necessary
• Distributing assets according to your instructions, including when and any conditions to be met before distribution.

Your St. Augustine trust attorney can help trustees understand their role and offer guidance when you need help administering the trust. Proper trust administration can prevent your loved ones from fighting over your estate. Probate can be avoided, preserving your family’s privacy while ensuring your estate plan works as you intend.

Trusts are underused estate planning tools. In Florida’s Second Judicial Circuit alone, there were 79,129 probate filings in fiscal year 2022‑23. Yet there were only 714 trust-related filings. Probate happens every day across the state of Florida as loved ones work to manage and distribute the estate of a deceased family member. Trust cases are seldom adopted by Floridians as a living estate management strategy.

Create an estate plan that works for you. A St. Augustine trust attorney can help ensure your trusts are valid, funded, and administered properly.

Can A Trust Lawyer Help With The Rest Of My Estate Plan?

Trusts are just one aspect of estate planning that we can help with. Depending on your goals for your estate, it’s possible that a comprehensive estate plan will involve more elements, such as wills, powers of attorney, healthcare directives, and instructions for what should be done about minor children. We can help with all these things, along with giving counsel and advice regarding how to structure an estate plan that aligns with your interests and objectives.

Our relationship with our clients is often an ongoing one. Trusts and estate plans are rarely static, as they shift, change, and adjust throughout your life. As you acquire or sell assets, your trust and estate plan will need to adjust accordingly. Relationships also change over time, and this may affect how you would like your assets to be distributed.

We are here to serve our clients’ estate planning needs as they change to fit their lives. No one knows exactly when they will pass away. However, we provide our clients with peace of mind by ensuring their wishes will be followed upon their death, regardless of changes in their lives.

FAQs About Trusts in St. Augustine, FL

What Makes a Trust Valid in Florida?

Ensuring that a trust is valid means it must be properly structured. This is one of the things that your lawyer is responsible for ensuring. The required parts for most trusts include legal capacity to create the trust, intent to create a trust, a trustee designated to manage assets in the trust, beneficiaries of the assets in the trust, property placed within the trust, a document outlining the trust and conditions, and the trust must be notarized.

Should I Choose a Will or a Trust?

While both wills and trusts have their advantages, the right option is dependent upon your situation and objectives. There are even some situations where both may be the right choice. An estate planning lawyer with experience working with both can help you understand the right option for your situation.

What Are the Disadvantages of a Trust in Florida?

The primary disadvantage of a trust is the cost and complexity that can be involved. Because of their complexity, lawyers will spend many hours creating a trust, for which you will be charged. However, the advantages a trust provides, like avoiding Probate, can make the costs worth it in many instances. There may be specific situational disadvantages that your lawyer should discuss with you.

Can a Trust Help Me Avoid My Estate Passing Through Probate Court?

The assets that are placed in a trust are not subject to the probate process, so many people use trusts for the purpose of avoiding both the expense and the public nature of Probate. If you have any other assets outside of your trust or trusts, they will still need to go through Probate.

Contact Our St. Augustine Trust Attorney

If you’re considering estate planning, you are probably wondering if a trust might be right for you and your family. You should consider the options to hire a trust attorney who understands trust laws. Helping you create a proper trust is something we can help with at the Law Office of Douglas A. Oberdorfer, P.A.

However, it’s important to remember that a trust may or may not be optimal, depending on your estate planning goals, and rarely is it the only estate planning device that you need. That’s why we work to develop and execute a full estate plan for our clients. Contact us for your trust and estate planning needs.