Irrevocable Trusts

There are many different types of irrevocable trusts. The most popular irrevocable trusts include:

1. life insurance trusts;
2. asset protection trusts;
3. charitable trusts;
4. trusts created upon death (such as QTIP trusts and bypass trusts); and
5. special needs trusts.

Generally, an irrevocable trust is designed to prevent its terms from being modified in the future. As a practical matter, what this means is that a person (the Grantor) creates a document (the Irrevocable Trust) outlining how his or her beneficiaries should receive any assets that are placed into the trust.

The Irrevocable Trust document itself has provisions which state that the Grantor may not make changes or modifications to the trust. Unlike a Revocable Trust, the Grantor of an Irrevocable Trust gives up all control once the trust is created. There are times when such trusts can be later modified, whether by court or by consent of all the beneficiaries, but never by the grantor alone.

Frequently people also create an Irrevocable Trust because once assets are transferred to such trust they will receive favorable estate and inheritance tax treatment. Assets in Irrevocable Trusts receive favorable tax treatment because they are excluded from the gross estate of the grantor at the time of the grantor’s death.

Another reason people also create irrevocable trusts is to provide as a means of protecting the assets in the trusts. By giving up control of the assets (in a non fraudulent way), a potential creditor may not sue the Grantor and try to claim against the assets in the trust.

In most states, including New Jersey, a Grantor may not be a beneficiary of an asset protection trust. However, a few states do allow self settled spendthrift trusts.