Can You Set Up a Trust After Death?

If you want the power of a trust without the work of maintaining it, a testamentary trust may be the right solution for your estate plan. Estate planning attorneys rely on many trusts, but two categories are most common: inter vivos trusts, trusts set up during your lifetime to offer the most flexibility, and testamentary trusts, as described in the article “Trusts can be created after death” from The News-Enterprise.

For an inter vivos trust, the grantor (the person making the trust) places property into the trust. These assets are thereby removed from the probate estate and pass directly to beneficiaries. Placing property into the trust requires having assets retitled and some trusts pay taxes. Not everyone wants to do the work. However, it is not onerous unless the estate is large, in which case an estate planning attorney can manage the details.

The testamentary trust is quite simple. The terms and directions for the trust are the same as in inter vivos trust but are inside the last will and testament. There is no separate trust document. The trust is located within the will.

The costs of creating a testamentary trust are lower, since the trust does not exist until the person dies. Your executor or personal representative is responsible for transferring assets into the trust. Many wills contain “trigger” trusts, which only become effective if pre-determined circumstances of the beneficiary occur to trigger the trust. If a beneficiary becomes disabled, for instance, the provisions become active.

There are some disadvantages to be aware of, which your estate planning attorney can explain if they pertain to your situation.

Testamentary trusts must by their nature go through probate before they are created. People use trusts to protect their privacy. However, a testamentary trust becomes part of the public record as part of the probate estate. With a testamentary trust, trust documents are private during your life and after you have died.

If dependents require funds from the trust because they are disabled or dependent, they must wait until the grantor dies and probate is completed, since the trust does not exist until after probate. As most people know, probate does not always occur in a timely manner.

Other issues: some life insurance companies may not permit a testamentary trust to be a beneficiary. The trust may only be funded with assets left after creditors have been paid. If there is a home to be sold, assets may not be available for a year or more.

Testamentary trusts do not shield assets during your lifetime, another key benefit for using a trust.

Testamentary trusts offer certain means of controlling distribution of assets after death, but should be considered with all factors in mind, benefits and drawbacks. In estate planning, as in life, it is always best to prepare for the unexpected.

Reference: The News-Enterprise (Feb. 8, 2022) “Trusts can be created after death”

Suggested Key Terms: Trust, Revocable, Irrevocable, Inter Vivos, Testamentary, Grantor, Estate Planning Attorney, Probate, Beneficiaries, Distribution, Testator, Creditors, Assets, Dependents, Disabled, Life Insurance

Will I Live Longer, if I Babysit the Grandchildren?

There’s a growing body of research that supports the notion that grandparents will live longer if they babysit the grandchildren. Parents with young children can know that their parents and their children are getting benefits from babysitting time together, says Considerable’s June article entitled “Grandparents who babysit a grandchild live longer, study finds.”

Considerable spoke with Dr. David Coall, senior lecturer at Edith Cowan University and a co-author of a 2017 study that found a connection between grandparent caregiving and mortality. Dr. Coall gave some updates in the field and highlighted further connections that still need to be made.

The 2017 study that Dr. Coall co-authored analyzed date from the Berlin Aging Study (BASE), which monitored the health and social conditions of over 500 participants in Germany between 1990 and 2009. The study focused on grandparents who simply provided periodic babysitting, rather than primary caregiving for their grandchildren.

Dr. Coall’s team of researchers found that caregiving grandparents had a 37% lower risk of death than non-caregiving grandparents. The same 37% risk reduction in mortality was found when comparing caregiving grandparents with non-grandparents.

Therefore, the risk of dying over a 20-year period was a third lower for grandparents who provided some level of care for their grandchildren, as opposed to grandparents who provided no care at all.

According to Dr. Coall, “The obvious next question was, ‘Is that purely because healthier grandparents are more likely to babysit and live longer?’”

In August 2017, he used the same BASE data to see if grandparents were healthier due to babysitting, or if they were babysitting, because they were already healthier and able to do so. Dr. Coall found that health only accounted for 22% of the link between helping and longevity. Interestingly, a direct effect of babysitting on longevity still existed in the data.

“So, we continue to look for what could be making this link between helping and living longer.”

Some longitudinal studies have examined if babysitting is linked with a subsequent improvement in grandparental health, with mixed results. The most recent study, a collaboration with researchers in Finland that was published in July, looked at whether an individual who became a grandparent subsequently went on to enjoy improved health.

Dr. Coall said that the research shows “a specific improvement in physical health, but not in emotional or mental health. Maybe this works through increased activity levels looking after grandchildren.”

Reference: Considerable (June 23, 2020) “Grandparents who babysit a grandchild live longer, study finds”

Suggested Key Terms: Elder Law Attorney, Child Care, Caregiving