Trusts are often used to hold financial assets. For instance, you may put cash aside so that an heir can use it to pay for college, or you may set up your life insurance policy to pay out into the trust when you pass away.
However, it’s important to remember that trusts can go beyond the purely financial. You can also add tangible personal property that you already own. Some examples include:
- Personal papers
- Books
- Computers
- Clothing
- Jewelry
- Artwork
- Collectibles
- Antiques
- Motor vehicles
- Home furnishings
- Furniture
- Scooters
- Airplanes
- Boats
- Pets
- Cattle
- Firearms
- Tools
- Horses
- Photos
While this is a long list, it is obviously not exhaustive, but it does serve to make a point: Almost anything that you own can go into a trust if you’d like. Some people even put their homes into trusts.
All you have to ask yourself is if you want to have more control over that asset after you pass away. A trust can help you distribute the asset or determine what happens to it. Leaving it to someone directly in a will may be simpler, but it may not accomplish exactly what you want for your estate. A trust allows you to plan out the smallest details and set up rules for how your assets should get transferred or used moving forward. That goes for financial assets and almost anything else.
If you want to get started with a trust for any reason, it’s very important to know what types of trusts there are, what advantages they offer and how to set them up in advance.