Gary Cloudman, head of fiduciary services at Angeles Wealth Management, joined Cheddar News to discuss the benefits of setting up trusts.

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Stretching Your Dollar: How to Protect Your Wealth By Setting Up a Trust

It's time now for stretching your dollar where we give you tangible tips to help you make the most of your money. Watch trusts are often associated with the riches away to pass down wealth to their errors. It's actually an estate planning tool that's becoming more popular with everyone offering great potential benefits. So today, we'll explore why and how you can create one. And joining me now is Gary Cloud Hman, head of fiduciary services at Angela's Wealth Management. Gary thanks so much for coming on the show. Why should people consider setting up a trust? Thank you for having me. Christian people should consider studying trust for a variety of reasons, but commonly, that's to protect assets, minimize the state tax. And also to send a message to beneficiary. The ultimate goal really is to that distribution of your assets, your beneficiaries and to protect your legacy. Now, is there any sort of threshold, is that one of these up? Is it, is it just for rich people? Basically, I think the trust is something every individual should consider. I think if you're at the point where you're working with a wealth manager and attorney, your state is probably complex enough for you to really think about this and put some time into it. Yeah. Okay. Good advice there. So when is it a good time, Gary to start thinking about setting one of these up? I think the pandemic was a natural time for some people to perhaps set up a trust. When is the right time to make the step? I've worked with a lot of individuals that I say they usually wait too long to think about this. So now is the right time. There's, there's no time of year or time of life to think about this. Uh It's you can start at any point. Uh and you can adjust the language and the trust throughout your life to kind of fit your situation. So I think it's never too soon to start thinking about this. What are some of the assets that can go in there? I know you mentioned if you have an attorney and a wealth management, wealth manager, you might have a more complex scenario, maybe it is more than just savings or stock, perhaps real estate as well. Collectively, what can go inside one of these? There's really very few assets that can't go inside of trust. I think you named a lot of the common ones that really think about which is investment accounts, bank accounts, real estate, personal property, uh insurance policies. I think the biggest thing to think about is assets. You may want to be more thoughtful around our assets that either require certain withdrawal during periods of time because there's, there's tax consequences to think about there. And also certain retirement accounts shouldn't be put into trust, your attorney or your CPA can usually help you with that answer. What are the costs involved with setting one of these up, Gary, if someone does want to make this move, what should they be prepared to pay for a trust? Well, it really varies greatly with the complexity of this state that's involved. You're gonna need to work with an attorney for sure, because this is a legal document that's being drafted. I think you want to consult your C P A, your wealth manager and it's really the cost of their time. So it's gonna vary by how much efforts put in and it goes from a simple trust and will to a very complex state won't range. It could cost. All right, Gary Cloud Man, head of fiduciary services and Angeles wealth management. Gary, thanks so much for coming on the show. An important topic.