Countersignature Liquidating Trust Agreement Made Easy

Countersignature liquidating trust agreement

[Applause] hey estate planning attorney paul raballay here and in this video we're going to talk about how to change an irrevocable trust that is designed to not be changed okay so over the years many many i would say at least tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people have established irrevocable trust i'm going to give you maybe five reasons why people have established irrevocable trusts over the years many people particularly when the estate tax exemption was around six hundred thousand dollars many people you know roughly twenty years ago or so they established these irrevocable life insurance trusts that owned life insurance and the idea was it would create liquidity that was not in the estate but it would create liquidity at the death of someone that could be used to pay the estate tax so there's many many irrevocable trusts out there owning life insurance policies and often those are second to die policies that married couples establish and so at least one if not both of those spouses are still alive and that irrevocable trust still exists a second type of irrevocable trust that's common done many many times over the last you know 20 30 years is many people have established irrevocable trust in an attempt to shield assets from the nursing home spin down some people over the last 20 or 30 years have established irrevocable trust to make in an attempt to make themselves kind of lawsuit proof or judgment proof also many parents and grandparents have gifted assets to irrevocable trusts commonly referred to in legal circles as crummy trusts and and so the parents set up those trusts transfer assets to the children and the grandchildren in an effort to get assets out of the taxable estate of the parents again to avoid that what is now 40 but used to be 55 estate tax and then a fifth reason many people have established irrevocable trust is is married persons often in their will um they leave their estate to an irrevocable testamentary trust often for the benefit of their spouse and children so those are just a few of the reasons people have established irrevocable trusts over the years but sometimes often years often decades after the creation of these irrevocable trusts circumstances really beyond the control of anyone make that irrevocable trust impractical maybe the trustee or trustees that were named in the tr in the irrevocable trust instrument have resigned or died and there's no practical backup provision in the trust for their replacement uh sometimes a a beneficiary of an irrevocable trust may have died became incapacitated became imprisoned addicted or some other circumstance making the trust impractical as to that beneficiary or sometimes trusts either require or prohibit certain actions of a trustee and years or decades later that requirement or that prohibition now that just makes no sense now you would think that if an irrevocable trust's trust exists that it it can't be changed can't be modified can't be amended that's what irrevocable means you can't change it but there is a way to have a irrevocable or non-amendable trust amended i'm going to refer you to a couple of the provisions in our louisiana trust code i'm pretty confident that most states in our united states have similar provisions but this is what we often rely on when the circumstance circumstances warrant changing and irrevocable trust so i'm going to point out provisions in two separate provisions of our trust code so the one that we use most often states that the proper court may order the termination or modification of a trust in whole or in part if the continuance of the trust unchanged would defeat or substantially impair the purposes of the trust i'm going to come back to that one sometimes we rely on this other provision in our trust code that says the proper court may order the termination or modification of the trust if the purpose for which it is created becomes impossible of accomplishment or illegal so those are two provisions we rely on uh oftentimes the one that we rely on the most is if the continuance of the trust unchanged would defeat or substantially impair the purposes of the trust so now i will state that when we do rely on that and since it says that a court may amend a trust that means that when these petitions are submitted and filed at the courthouse the judge that it's assigned to has the discretion whether to order the termination or the modification so since a judge has that discretion we always want to you know really present our circumstances in a way that it makes sense to a judge that it's kind of a no-brainer that the judge ordered that modification or that termination so typically when we do ask a judge to order the amendment or modification of an irrevocable trust we want to make sure all of the parties to that trust join in that petition by signing off on the appropriate paperwork that's includes what's called the set lawyers or the grantors the people who set up that trust it includes the trustee or trustees of that trust it includes the beneficiaries of that trust really anybody involved we won't we want all of those parties joining in the petition to amend or modify an irrevocable trust so when it gets to the judge's desk the judge is like well geez everybody who's anybody or any party to this trust agrees that this trust should be amended makes it easier for the judge to exercise his discretion so not only should all of the participants in the trust sign off on the petition but it really uh is important that the lawyer who who creates this petition and asks a judge to order the amendment it's really important that the lawyer lay out a convincing reason or reasons why continuance of the trust unchanged would defeat the purposes of the trust so there you have it um that's provisions that are often relied on when those circumstances change making the the trust impractical um you'll want to make sure if you're not in louisiana to check with lawyers or check with your trust code or do what you have to do to make sure you follow the appropriate provisions but keep that in mind it's uh it's a process that can take a little bit of time from start to finish to um to accomplish because you're getting judges and courts and lawyers involved so but that's it and there's the provision so yes many people create revocable trust typically kind of probate avoidance type stuff and those can be changed anytime but when someone creates an irrevocable trust to change it which is necessary sometimes you have to rely on the rules where whereby it is stated that these irrevocable trusts can be amended or modified okay last thing it's real important is i want to make sure you click the like button gray to blue and then if you haven't already subscribed to my youtube channel make sure you hit the red subscribe button and the notification bell that way you won't miss anything in the future as i continue making these educational estate planning videos it has been so helpful that when people contact my office they've watched the videos and they're so prepared to have a really high level uh conversation about what they're trying to accomplish i love the what these videos do for kind of our potential and future uh current and future you know estate planning clients all right you all have a great day we'll see you next time