Standalone Spendthrift Trust Portfolio
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Spendthrift trusts are irrevocable.
An irrevocable trust can’t be modified or terminated without the permission of the beneficiary. The grantor, having transferred assets into the trust, effectively removes all of his rights of ownership to the assets and the trust. Once assets are placed into an irrevocable they are no longer owned by you. This is the opposite of a revocable trust, which allows the grantor to modify the trust.
The most common use of a spendthrift trust is to protect trust income and assets from a beneficiary’s reckless financial behavior. A properly structured spendthrift trust splits the beneficial enjoyment of trust assets from their legal ownership. The beneficiaries of a trust are the beneficial owners of equitable interests in the trust assets, but they do not hold legal title to the assets. The goal of asset protection planning is to insulate assets from claims of creditors without concealment or tax evasion.
When properly managed, assets owned in spendthrift trust are outside the reach of creditors. This is achieved by making a beneficiary’s access to both trust income and principal at the “sole and absolute” discretion of the trustee. By law a creditor’s ability to satisfy a judgment against a beneficiary’s interest in a trust is limited to the beneficiary’s interest in such trust. A spendthrift trust limits the interests of beneficiaries in such a way so as to preclude creditors from collecting against trust assets.