Land Trust Question - Trustee
i'm planning on buying a 3 rd property and putting it in a land trust. plan on using ron legrands docs.
my question is can i be the trustee and name the beneficiaries as my wife and me? what are the
disadvantages to this??
i'm in california.
also, if i hire a property mgmt company, would they like to deal directly with the trustees or the bene's? would putting the trustee as a friend affect this??
thanks.
A reason for using a trust is anonymity. Making yourself trustee and beneficiary, is the same as having the property titled in your own name. There is no anonymity here.
If you want to use a trust for estate planning, probate avoidance, and to maximize your federal estate tax unified credit, then I can see using a trust as you describe.
What goal do you want to achieve by using a trust?
The trustee is the one that is going to make decisions regarding the trust. Therefore the property manager will want to deal with the trustee. It is no one's business who the beneficiary is. I would hesitate to put anyone in charge of my affaris, no matter how good a friend.
I, and several others I've spoken with, set up land trusts with myself as trustee, and LLC as beneficiary.
There are professional trustee services which can, for a fee, be named to act as trustee. They basically take their instructions from the beneficiary, so make no decisions independently.
A very prominent one is operated by Tom Standen, who also operates North American Loan Servicing Co, of MidPines CA. He can be reached @ (800) 646-3445, ( I think) from most parts of the country.
Tom, or his company, is trustee for a number of trusts created by & with Bill Gatten, in his PacTrust program.
And many lawyers around the country take on this business, so ask around where you are.
The advantage of having your lawyer do it is lawyer-client confidentiality, at least what's left of it...and unless he/she sees or knows of a crime you've committed, generally speaking, cannot testify or divulge info about your business.
If you do consider having any lawyer do it, I'd recommend only the bigger corporate type law firms, as the lawyers therein have to answer to more oversight than does a lawyer in a small firm.
thanks a lot.
i'm basically trying to get anonymity to avoid lawsuits.
thought about making the bene an LLC but at $800/yr in CA, its a little steep.
how about making the bene a living trust or something? would that offer any anonymity, or is that pretty transparent too?
To best use a trust for anionymity, the owner would use a trust where he or his name do not appear at all...except as beneficiary, which is not visible to public or in public records.
E.G.: Wilson St. RE Trust", with a 3d party trustee, 3d party address for tax statements, etc.
Since you're so close to Tom Standen, I'd recommend you give him a call. You'll learn a lot from him at no cost to you
By the way, I have no financial arrangement with Tom or his co., and just like what I know about him & what he does..
thanks for the info. i'll give tom a call. i found out he's on the panel of experts for www.noteworthy.com, which def. gives him some crediblity.