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This video features Vincent Casiano, an Estate Planning attorney based in California.
Rob Rosenthal:
Do you know how a trust works to leave money to children or other relatives? Let's ask California lawyer, Vinnie Casiano, for an Ask The Lawyers Quick Question.
Vinny Casiano:
First thing is, I say to my clients, "Do not leave your assets outright to anybody." It goes from your trust into a trust for their benefit and then that can be protected, depending on what you wanna do. It can be protected against their future ex-spouses, 60% of the people get divorced here in California. If they become disabled, it can be held in a protected trust for them, so it wouldn't affect them if, God forbid, they needed to be on Medi-Cal. And if they're incompetent at the time, what have you, then it's still... It's held for them. If you give it to them outright, no, all bets are off. If they've got creditors waiting there, if they have a spouse that's just waiting for that money to come in, it goes to the joint account, then you get divorced, half of it goes to them. Nobody wants that stuff to happen. So there are ways that you can do this. Again, I don't make these decisions for my clients, my clients make the decision. My job is to give the options, explain what's important here, why you might wanna do things one way or the other, and let my clients decide.
Disclaimer: This video is for informational purposes only. In some states, this video may be deemed Attorney Advertising. The choice of lawyer is an important decision that should not be based solely on advertisements.