People in Texas often focus on planning for the future, such as saving for their children’s college education or for their retirement, but estate planning is one area that is frequently neglected. However, creating estate plans, including documents such as wills and trusts, is an essential task for adults both young and old. Trusts are particularly valuable for ensuring that one’s property will be distributed as one desires.
Using trusts is often preferred to using wills, since a will has to go through the process of probate. A judge oversees this lengthy and costly process. With a trust, however, a person can simply name certain individuals to handle his or her affairs upon his or her death. These individuals need to be reliable and honest.
The challenge some people face is that the people they have named to address their affairs may be honest and well meaning but might have differing opinions regarding the interpretation of the instructions left behind by the deceased person. This is why it is also expedient to have a trust feature a trust protector provision as well. This provision enables a person to name somebody to interpret his or her trust in the situation of disagreements among trustees as well as beneficiaries.
How much authority a person in Texas wishes to give to a trust protector is totally up to that person. For instance, this protector’s powers may be limited to particular areas — for instance, settling disputes between beneficiaries and trustees. Appropriate legal guidance may help people to establish trusts that effectively align with their wishes in the event of their passing.
Source: yumansun.com, “Estate Planning: Who oversees a trust administration?“, Shawn Garner, Aug. 8, 2016