生前信托如何帮助我控制我的遗产?
Living trusts enable you to control the distribution of your estate, and certain trusts may enable you to reduce or avoid many of the taxes and fees that will be imposed upon your death.
A trust is a 法律 arrangement under which one person, the 受托人，控制他人给予的财产 委托人，为了第三者的利益 受益人. 当你建立可撤销生前信托时, 你可以成为委托人, 受托人, 以及信托的受益人.
当你设立生前信托时, you transfer ownership of all the assets you’d like to place in the trust from yourself to the trust. Legally, you no longer own any of the assets in your trust. 你的信托基金现在拥有这些资产. 但是，作为受托人，你拥有完全的控制权. 你可以按你认为合适的方式买卖. 你甚至可以放弃资产.
在你死后, assuming that you have transferred all your assets to the revocable trust, there isn’t anything to probate because the assets are held in the trust. Therefore, properly established living trusts completely avoid probate. 如果你使用生前信托, your estate will be available to your heirs upon your death, without any of the delays or expensive court proceedings that accompany the probate process.
There are some trust strategies that serve very specific estate needs. One of the most widely used is a living trust with an A-B trust provision. The purpose of an A-B trust arrangement (also called a "marital and bypass trust combination”) is to enable both spouses to use the applicable estate tax exemption upon their deaths, 哪一种资产更能避免联邦遗产税.
Before enactment of the 2010 Tax Relief Act and the higher federal estate tax exclusion, some estate planning was involved to ensure that both spouses could take full advantage of their combined estate tax exclusions. The latest major piece of tax legislation is the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, 该法案于12月22日签署成为法律, 2017. This Act doubled the federal estate tax exclusion (indexed annually for inflation); in 2024 the federal estate tax exclusion is $13.6100万美元（去年为12美元）.2023年9200万). In 2026, the exclusion is scheduled to revert to its pre-2018 level. Typically, it involved creation of an A-B trust arrangement. 现在这种可移植性是永久的, it’s possible for the executor of a deceased spouse’s estate to transfer any unused exclusion to the surviving spouse without creating a trust.
即便如此, many states and the District of Columbia still have their own estate and/or inheritance taxes (Maryland has both), many have exclusions of less than the federal exclusion amount, 而且大多数都没有可移植性条款. By funding a bypass trust up to the state exclusion amount, you could shelter the first spouse’s exclusion amount from the state estate tax.
因此, A-B信托可能仍然有用, not only to preserve the couple’s state estate tax exclusions but also to shelter appreciation of assets placed in the trust, 保护资产不受债权人的侵害, 也有利于前一段婚姻的孩子. In most cases, however, when couples have combined estate assets of $27.2024年将达到或低于2,200万美元（高于25美元）.84 million in 2023), they might be better off just leaving everything outright to each other.
A living trust with an A-B trust provision can help ensure that a couple takes full advantage of the estate tax exclusion for both spouses. When the first spouse dies, two separate trusts are created. An amount of estate assets up to the applicable exclusion amount is placed in the B trust (or bypass trust). The balance is placed in the surviving spouse’s A trust (or marital trust), 哪些人有资格申请遗产税婚姻扣除. This then creates two taxable entities, each of which is entitled to use the exclusion.
The B trust is included in the taxable estate when the first spouse dies. But because it doesn’t exceed the estate tax exclusion amount, no estate taxes will actually be paid. The surviving spouse retains complete control of the assets in the A trust. He or she can also receive income from the B trust and can even withdraw principal when needed for health, 教育, 支持, 或维护.
在第二任配偶死亡时, only the A trust is subject to estate taxes because the B trust bypasses the second spouse's estate. If the assets in the A trust don’t exceed the applicable exclusion amount, no estate taxes are owed. 此时此刻, both trusts terminate and the assets are distributed to the beneficiaries, 完全避免遗嘱认证.
While trusts offer numerous advantages, they incur up-front costs and ongoing administrative fees. The use of trusts involves a complex web of tax rules and regulations. You should consider the counsel of an experienced estate planning professional and your 法律 and tax professionals before implementing such strategies.
本通讯中的信息不作为税务用途, 法律, 投资, 或退休建议或建议, and it may not be relied on for the purpose of avoiding any federal tax penalties. You are encouraged to seek guidance from an independent tax or 法律 professional. The content is derived from sources believed to be accurate. Neither the information presented nor any opinion expressed constitutes a solicitation for the purchase or sale of any security. This material was written and prepared by Broadridge Advisor Solutions. ©2024 Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc.