Trusts
A trust can also be used strategically to safeguard your personal assets from the potential risks associated with business activities and/or insolvency. By setting up a living trust, you can transfer specific assets into the trust with the primary focus
As a word of caution, if your will is found to be invalid, for whatever reason, no testamentary trust can be formed which can result in your beneficiaries being financially prejudiced.
While alter-ego trusts may be valid, ‘sham’ trusts fail to meet the requirements for validity in that they are essentially fake trusts designed to deceive others. As such, the test for determining whether a trust is a sham one is
As an aside, it is important to note that this type of trust can only be set up for the benefit of a disabled person and no one else’s benefit. Where there are two or more beneficiaries to your trust,
When it comes to planning the distribution of your retirement benefits to your heirs and beneficiaries, it is important to keep in mind that funds housed in approved retirement funds do not fall into your estate. Rather, the distribution of
In a community of property marriage, all debt incurred by the spouses before and during the marriage forms part of the common estate, including maintenance obligations to a previous spouse or children from a previous relationship.
To safeguard the trust assets against the effects of inflation, it will be necessary for the trustees to assume some investment risk, and it is important that the trustees have a sound understanding of how investments work in order to
The trustees that you appoint will have a fiduciary duty to manage the trust assets in the best interests of the trust beneficiaries, and it is, therefore, important to choose your trustees wisely. Ideally, you should consider someone who has
