A trust is a fiduciary relationship in which the trustee becomes the holder of legal title to property. A trustee’s duty is to administer the trust for the benefit of the beneficiaries. Many people use trusts when their intended beneficiaries are not suited to hold the assets outright: they may be too young, financially unsophisticated, or in need of protection from their creditors. Trusts are also used to facilitate distribution of the trustor's assets in a way that minimizes estate taxes.

Trusts can achieve many benefits. They can protect a beneficiary from creditors, reduce taxes, create specific plans to care for individuals according to their specific needs, meet the needs of current and future generations and facilitate philanthropic goals. A skilled estate planning attorney can help you determine if a trust would help you to achieve one or more of these objectives and, if so, the type of trust that would fit your needs.

The best way to set up a trust is to consult with an experienced estate planning attorney and create an estate plan. The plan must meet your objectives so the trust will accomplish your goals. Once the planning is complete, the attorney will draft one or more trusts. We would be happy to review the draft(s) and make comments or suggestions. In addition, San Pasqual Trust would be pleased to assist you by referring you to an independent attorney if you need one.

Tax planning is an important part of estate planning. The tax advantages of a trust will vary depending upon each client’s unique situation; however, planning can be extremely important to the disposition of a family’s estate. Generally, a family will want to take advantage of the available estate tax exemptions. In addition, it is sometimes beneficial to place certain assets into a trust, such as life insurance. Charitable trusts may produce tax efficient income for one or more individuals while facilitating a legacy gift to one or more charities.

We administer revocable ("living") and irrevocable trusts, including charitable and life insurance trusts. We welcome trusts with real estate, closely-held businesses, limited partnership interests and other unique assets as well as public securities such as stocks and bonds, and of course personal residences and second homes.

Because San Pasqual Trust does not provide its own investment management services, we will always work with "outside" firms that will manage your assets. San Pasqual Trust will collect periodic information from each manager in order to produce trust statements and monitor performance. Manager performance factors that we believe are important include asset mix and portfolio diversification, global and sector performance, tax performance and net income, management fees, and the family's relationship with the investment provider.