• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Zimmer Law Firm logo Zimmer Law Firm
  • Our Firm
    • About Our Firm
    • Attorney and Staff Profiles
    • Communities We Serve
      • Butler County
        • Fairfield
        • Hamilton
        • West Chester
      • Clermont County
        • Milford
      • Hamilton County
        • Blue Ash
        • Cincinnati
        • Loveland
        • Montgomery
        • Sharonville
      • Warren County
        • Mason
    • Our Client Care Program
  • Services
    • Estate Planning Services in Cincinnati, Ohio
    • Incapacity Planning
    • IRA Inheritance Planning in Cincinnati, Ohio
    • Legacy Wealth Planning in Ohio
    • LGBTQ Estate Planning Services in Ohio
    • Medicaid Planning and Elder Law
    • How the SECURE Act Impacts Your Ohio Estate Plan
    • Special Needs Estate Planning in Cincinnati, Ohio
    • Young Adult Legal Protection Plan in Ohio
  • Live Events
    • Webinars
  • Resources
    • DocuBank
    • Ohio Elder Law Resources
      • Blue Ash
      • Cincinnati
      • Elder Law & Medicaid Definitions
      • Fairfield
      • Hamilton
      • Loveland
      • Montgomery
      • Sharonville
      • West Chester
    • Estate Planning Resources
      • Estate & Gift Tax Figures
      • Estate Planning Checkup
      • Estate Planning Definitions
      • Free Estate Planning Checklist
      • Incapacity Planning Definitions
      • Is Your Estate Plan Outdated?
      • Legacy Planning Definitions
      • Top 10 Estate Planning Techniques
    • FAQs
    • Pre Consultation Form
    • Probate Resources
      • Blue Ash
      • Cincinnati
      • Hamilton
      • Loveland
      • Mason
      • Milford
      • Probate Checklist
      • Sharonville
      • Trust Administration & Probate Definitions
      • West Chester
    • Presentations
  • Blog
  • Reviews
  • Contact

Zimmer Law Firm

Estate Planning & Elder Law Attorneys

513.721.1513
Request a Free Consultation
Request a Free Consultation

Google initial with star next to it

  • Our Firm
    • About Our Firm
    • Attorney and Staff Profiles
    • Communities We Serve
      • Butler County
        • Fairfield
        • Hamilton
        • West Chester
      • Clermont County
        • Milford
      • Hamilton County
        • Blue Ash
        • Cincinnati
        • Loveland
        • Montgomery
        • Sharonville
      • Warren County
        • Mason
    • Our Client Care Program
  • Services
    • Estate Planning Services in Cincinnati, Ohio
    • Incapacity Planning
    • IRA Inheritance Planning in Cincinnati, Ohio
    • Legacy Wealth Planning in Ohio
    • LGBTQ Estate Planning Services in Ohio
    • Medicaid Planning and Elder Law
    • How the SECURE Act Impacts Your Ohio Estate Plan
    • Special Needs Estate Planning in Cincinnati, Ohio
    • Young Adult Legal Protection Plan in Ohio
  • Live Events
    • Webinars
  • Resources
    • DocuBank
    • Ohio Elder Law Resources
      • Blue Ash
      • Cincinnati
      • Elder Law & Medicaid Definitions
      • Fairfield
      • Hamilton
      • Loveland
      • Montgomery
      • Sharonville
      • West Chester
    • Estate Planning Resources
      • Estate & Gift Tax Figures
      • Estate Planning Checkup
      • Estate Planning Definitions
      • Free Estate Planning Checklist
      • Incapacity Planning Definitions
      • Is Your Estate Plan Outdated?
      • Legacy Planning Definitions
      • Top 10 Estate Planning Techniques
    • FAQs
    • Pre Consultation Form
    • Probate Resources
      • Blue Ash
      • Cincinnati
      • Hamilton
      • Loveland
      • Mason
      • Milford
      • Probate Checklist
      • Sharonville
      • Trust Administration & Probate Definitions
      • West Chester
    • Presentations
  • Blog
  • Reviews
  • Contact

Trusts Serve Multiple Purposes

Home Our Blog Trusts Serve Multiple Purposes

By Barry Zimmer on April 7th, 2020 in Estate Planning

Trusts Serve Multiple Purposes

There is a widely held misconception about the way that trusts are used in the field of estate planning. You may assume that a last will is the core asset transfer vehicle that is appropriate for just about everyone. The idea is that trusts are only useful for very wealthy people with complicated portfolios.

In actuality, there are many different types of trust, and they satisfy varying aims. Yes, some of them are used by people with a great deal of money that are exposed to the federal estate tax. However, other trusts are actually more widely utilized, and you should understand the facts before you make any assumptions.

Revocable Living Trusts

A revocable living trust is a legal device that is the ideal choice for a broad range of people. First, it is important to take note of the “revocable” designation. You can revoke or dissolve a living trust at any time, for any reason. As the grantor of this type of trust, you can act as the trustee and the beneficiary while you are living, so you maintain total control on every level.

In the trust declaration, you would name a successor trustee and successor beneficiaries. After you are gone, the trustee would follow your instructions and distribute assets to the beneficiaries in accordance with your wishes.

The probate court would not be involved, and this is a major advantage over a last will. Probate is a costly and time-consuming legal process. In addition to the benefit of probate avoidance, you can include spendthrift protections, and the estate administration tasks are streamlined when you use a living trust.

Medicaid Trusts

When you are planning ahead for your elder years with your legacy in mind, you should consider the potential impact of long-term care costs. The majority of senior citizens will need living assistance eventually, and over 30 percent of them will require nursing home care.

These facilities are exorbitantly expensive, and Medicare will not pick up the tab. Medicaid does pay for living assistance, but it is a need-based program, so you cannot qualify if you have significant assets in your own name.

To account for this, you could convey resources into an irrevocable Medicaid trust. As the name would indicate, you would not be able to revoke the trust, and you would have no access to the principal. That’s the bad news, but the good news is that you would be able to receive income that is generated by assets in the trust until and unless you apply for Medicaid.

Supplemental Needs Trusts

If you have a loved one with special needs on your inheritance list, you have to take pause and consider the potential impact on government benefit eligibility. Many people with special needs rely on Medicaid for health insurance, and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) is a source of ongoing income.

Since these programs are only available to individuals with financial need, a sudden infusion of financial resources can trigger a loss of eligibility. As a response, you could convey assets into a supplemental needs trust. The person that you want to provide for would be the beneficiary, and you would name a trustee to administer the trust.

Medicaid and SSI will provide the basics, but there are other needs and desires that these programs will not cover. The trustee of a supplemental needs trust can use assets in the trust to satisfy these needs without impacting ongoing government benefit eligibility.

Download Our Worksheet

Our attorneys have prepared a very useful worksheet that you can go through to gain a more thorough understanding of the estate planning process. This valuable resource is being offered free of charge right now, and you can visit our worksheet access page to get your copy.

Attend a Free Webinar!

Since we are all committed to social distancing, we have had to adjust the ways that we interact with our clients. We typically hold seminars on an ongoing basis, so we have simply transitioned to webinars. You can visit our webinar schedule page to see the current dates.

Primary Sidebar

Request a Free Consultation

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

What Our Clients Say

Some years ago, Barry Zimmer suggested we do a basic estate plan for our son when he went to college. We had no idea how important it would be! In our son's freshman year, he ended up in the hospital, and we were able to get crucial information about his condition because we had a health care ...

Read All Testimonials

Zimmer Law Firm

9825 Kenwood Road
Suite 201
Cincinnati, OH 45242
  • Facebook Logo
  • Linkedin Logo
  • X Logo
  • Youtube Logo

Copyright © 2025 Zimmer Law Firm
Disclaimer Privacy Policy

 

Make a Payment