Long Island living trust attorneys provide help to clients with all different kinds of family situations. A living trust is a versatile and powerful tool that clients can use to make sure their family members are appropriately provided for. We will work closely with you to determine if you should create a living trust and to find out when and how this trust can help you to secure your legacy. 
There are a wide variety of situations in which a living trust is an important part of an estate plan. However, this type of trust could be especially important for same sex couples to create.
You should work with Long Island living trust attorneys if you are part of a same sex couple to find out about unique estate planning challenges that you could face and to discover the ways in which tools like living trusts could help you to overcome these challenges.
How Living Trusts Can Help Same Sex Couples
Living trusts can be a good way to transfer assets to your partner after you pass away, especially if you have a same sex partner to whom you are not married. The process of transferring assets can take a long time after your death. If assets must transfer through the probate process, Investopedia indicates the process could take around a year.
If you have a same-sex partner who you are in a relationship with but not married to, this delay in receiving an inheritance could be a big problem if your partner was counting on the inheritance. In many cases, it could be an even bigger problem for unmarried same sex couples if a partner is not entitled to Social Security survivors’ benefits or other sources of income after a partner has passed on. You don’t want your partner to fall into financial hardship because of your death, so you should find out if the use of a living trust to facilitate the timely transfer of assets would be advisable in your particular situation.
A living trust can also be helpful to both married and unmarried same sex couples because a living trust can reduce the chances of your desired transfer of assets being contested after death. If you transfer assets via a last will and testament, it is possible that someone could contest a will. If any of your family members were not fully accepting of your sexual identity or fully accepting of your partner, there is a chance they could try to challenge your will if you leave most or all of your assets to your same sex partner. If the challenge is successful, your wishes may not be respected and your partner might not get to inherit as you had intended.
If you have made a living trust, however, you increase the chances that your wishes will be respected. It is much harder for someone to challenge a living trust because you typically make this type of trust long before you pass away and you manage the trust– acting as a trustee– throughout your life. It’s hard to argue that you created and managed a trust for many years even though the trust wasn’t actually a reflection of your preferences.
Since it is difficult for someone who wishes to contest a will to successfully make that argument and show that you didn’t intend your same-sex partner to be your trust beneficiary, you significantly decrease the likelihood that a challenge to your wishes after your death will be a successful one.
Getting Help from Long Island Living Trust Attorneys
These are just a few examples of how the creation of a living trust could potentially be beneficial to same sex couples. Every person’s relationships and family situations are different, so these reasons for trust creation may not apply to you or there may be other reasons why the creation of a living trust is so important to take control over your legacy.
The key is to talk with the right professionals who can help you to make smart, informed choices about the use of trusts. Long Island living trust attorneys at Mark S. Eghrari & Associates PLLC are here to help. We help same sex couples, married and unmarried heterosexual couples and individuals with all different family structures and estate planning goals.
To find out more about the assistance we can offer, give us a call at (631) 265-0599 or contact us online today. You can also join us for a free seminar to discover more about the services we provide to clients with trusts and other estate planning tools.
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