Boulder Trust Lawyers
Denver Revocable and Irrevocable Trust Attorneys
Trusts are effective estate planning vehicles to protect your assets, increase privacy and ensure that they go to the right people and are used for the right reasons.
At the Colorado law firm of St.Clair & Greschler, P.C, our Boulder trust attorneys have helped clients form effective trusts and estate plans since 1986. Whether your goal is to give money to a charitable organization, reduce your tax liability/estate taxes, or prevent your children from squandering away your money when you pass away, we can help.
What Does a Trust Involve?
A trust is a legal instrument that lets you determine how your assets will be managed today or in the future. Usually, a trust allows an individual (the "settlor" or "grantor") to appoint another person (the "trustee") to watch over assets and use those assets for the benefit of a third party (the "beneficiary").
Trusts have many purposes, such as reducing the taxes you and your heirs may face (including the generation-skipping transfer tax, gift tax and, when applicable, estate taxes) and allowing you to set specific instructions for the use of your assets.
Our Colorado trust attorneys advise and represent trustees, settlors, and beneficiaries who would like to create or modify a trust, or who face trust disputes.
Choosing From a Wide Variety of Trusts
We have extensive experience building trusts that meet our clients' objectives. We will examine your situation and discuss the various options that you have, including:
- Revocable trusts: A revocable trust is a trust that can be changed or ended during the grantor's lifetime. Usually, the grantor appoints himself or herself as trustee and beneficiary, allowing him or her to maintain control over the assets in the trust. A revocable trust can be used as a will substitute.
- Irrevocable trusts: Unlike a revocable trust, an irrevocable trust cannot be changed or ended by the grantor. However, it carries special options not available through a revocable trust. For example, life insurance trusts can be irrevocable trusts that allow a grantor to predetermine how life insurance proceeds should be distributed to young children and possibly avoid estate taxes.
- Living trusts: A living trust is a trust that you create while you are still alive (unlike testamentary trusts, which are created through your will). A common living trust is the bypass trust (AB trust), which is often used by spouses to take maximum advantage of federal exemptions to estate taxes.
Adapting to Changes in the Law
Some of our Colorado trust attorneys have been forming trusts for more than 30 years. They have seen a vast number of changes to the law and have learned to adapt to those changes. If requested, we will stay proactive and review your trusts and other estate planning documents when there are significant changes to the law. We keep a will and trust file on each of our clients and will search through that file to determine which clients are affected by any changes in the law. Then, we will send letters to those clients, recommending that they come in to revisit their estate plans.
This is only one of the many quality services we provide our clients.
Schedule Your Initial Consultation Today
Contact our law office today to learn more about our estate planning and asset protection services and how our Boulder, Colorado, trust lawyers can help you. We are available during regular business hours and by appointment evenings and weekends. You can reach us by phone at 303-502-5978 or via e-mail.
