I don't see much on this on the boards, and am sure there's a resident expert. I'm the resident apprentice...

Seems these are used in some instances to protect one's assets during an intergenerational transfer. Essentially these protect assets from getting hammered by an inheritance tax so you can hand off your nest egg to your kids.

I'm going to probably retain a barrister and/or a Garret certified planner to give me some more info on this, as legal stuff makes me twitch and it's not so much an investment strategy as it is a protection method, from what I see.

Anything to add? When to use, not to use? Suze Orman seems to like them. I like some of her advice, but I have big issues with some of it too.

Trusts are usually discussed on the estate planning board.

http://boards.fool.com/estate-to-llc-29161051.aspx

An Irrevocable trust is a means of gifting assets from one individual or business entity to another, with stipulations. There are many flavors of irrevocable trusts, but common to all is the ability to transfer assets out of the giftor's estate and the inability of the trustor to have any 'incedence of ownership' on the assets transferred to the trust.

BruceM

In addition to the Estate Planning board, trusts are often discussed on the Inheritance Strategies board at http://boards.fool.com/inheritance-strategies-100150.aspx?mi...
Revocable trusts that become irrevocable upon the death of the trustor can sometimes be used to accomplish estate issues.

Bob

Seems these are used in some instances to protect one's assets during an intergenerational transfer. Essentially these protect assets from getting hammered by an inheritance tax so you can hand off your nest egg to your kids.

In general, yes. There are several different flavors of them, depending on your planning goal. However, irrevocable trusts may be used to protect beneficiaries from themselves as much if not more than for
minimizing transfer taxes. Again, depends on the goals of the grantor(s).

You can read more about them on the estate planning board, as already noted.

Whatever you do, be careful in who you retain to do your estate planning. I've heard that some planners will give you defective trusts that have crummey powers.

-synchronicity