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Gerard W. O'Brien and Associates

2650 E. Imperial Highway, Brea CA 92821

714-985-9025

NIL SINE MAGNO LABORE

Nothing without great effort

For those things you can not replace you must provide protection.

Marie OBrien on Kings Day waiting for the cake

For those irreplaceable people in your life no amount of protection is excessive.

Gerard W. O'Brien and Associates

Gerard W. O'Brien and Associates has offices in Brea California, which is in northern Orange County, surrounded by Yorba Linda, Placentia, Fullerton, LaHabra and Diamond Bar. Diamond Bar is in Los Angeles County and the other cities are all in Orange County. We are about 45 minutes from down town Los Angeles and about twenty minutes from Disney Land. We are two miles from the Brea Mall.

 

Trusts & Wills

On the transactional side of law perhaps the most well known legal device is the Will. Less well known but of far greater utility is the Revocable Living Trust. Here we will present a thumb nail sketch of these two devices and a few more that have great utility for estate holders both large and small.

WILLS

Wills are documents that allow a person to have their estate managed and distributed under court supervision through a process called probate. Probate has an undeservedly bad name, because at times it is extremely beneficial. It can be time consuming and it can be expensive but sometimes the cool and impartial head of a judge prevents many problems.

You should not rule out the benefits of proceeding under probate until you have discussed your particular situation with an attorney. More often than not a Revocable Living Trust based plan will provide you with greater flexibility and will be the option of choice.

TRUSTS

There are many different kinds of trusts and they have many different uses. The most common elements of trusts are flexibility and utility during life. A Will is only effective at death. A trust can be effective the moment that you sign it. The trust may be understood as serving two functions. First it is an entity that is used to hold title Second it is a set of instructions.

IRREVOCABLE TRUSTS

Give away property and it can not be taken from you. You can make outright gifts but then the property will not be there for you. But when you settle your property in a trust which can not be revoked and fund it with property that can not come back to you, as the owner, you have a vehicle which will allow for your exclusive use and enjoyment. Would you rather own something that can be taken from you or use something that can't.

CHARITABLE TRUSTS

Most inherited money is spent within two years of its receipt. It doesn't matter if the inheritance is large or small, the inheritor, old or young, male or female, educated or not. Found money burns holes in people's pockets. So if it will all be gone in less than twenty-four months would skimming 20% for a favorite philanthropic cause hurt anyone? We think not. Charity in fact benefits not only those who receive but those who share the community and the giver herself.

There is a great variety of vehicles for charitable giving. Finding the one that suits you best, is very important. We can explain each of your options and show you how they fit into your estate plan.

SPECIAL NEEDS TRUSTS

The miracles of modern medicine have made staying alive more possible then ever, but being alive and being able to manage your estate are two entirely different things. A special needs trust is the vehicle of choice for use when a person, man or woman, adult or child can not manage their estate due to injury, illness, or disability. The special needs trust provides, while allowing the disabled person to receive government services.

TRUSTS WITHIN TRUSTS

A revocable living trust [RLT] can be drawn so that it creates subtrusts as needs arise. For the children there are separate trusts, education trusts, pot trusts, special needs trusts and more. The married couple can have individual trusts, joint trusts, separate property trusts, etc. A joint RLT can split into marital deduction trusts, bypass trusts, survivors trusts, family trusts and more.

ALPHABET SOUP TRUSTS

At a certain level trust names are simply a statement of their function and those phrases become catchy littleanagrams. They turn into alphabet soup. QTIP, QPRT, QDOT, GRAT, GRUT, TCLAT, CRAT, IDGT, CRUT, etc.

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