What if My Estate Grows in the Next 10 Years?

Many people are concerned that if they create a trust, their estate may grow and then the trust becomes a waste of effort or will have to be significantly rewritten. Nothing could be further from the truth.

A good estate plan will have several provisions in the trust to protect and include a growth or reduction contingency. As an example, suppose that a young couple really do not have a significant estate at the time they consult one of our attorneys. However, they are both aspiring for great things and may even have an inheritance coming.

Provisions in the estate plan and trust can identify road marks of significant detail that require the trust to operate differently. If the estate is too small to ever have to pay estate taxes at the time of the first spouse to die, then all of the estate is given to the surviving spouse, but if taxes would have to be paid on that event, then creation of an AB trust (See “The Infamous AB Trust“) will be done pursuant to the trust language. Marital exemption is another way to consider tax savings events, and what to do if the estate is larger.

Additionally, an amendment to a well-drafted trust only takes several minutes to one hour usually. Therefore if a significant trust change is necessary, an amendment is far superior to simply avoiding the creation of a trust.

Consider also that as you accumulate wealth, it is easier to “Fund” your trust as you go (See “Funding your Trust“), than to carry out this task at a later date or under stress because of sudden onset of illness or death.

There is no real reason to defer a trust, and we frequently make clear that if you own a house, you own a probate, so get a trust done immediately.