The Living Trust

The living trust is very useful in estate planning. This formation is called a "living trust" because it is established while you're (or grantor, settlor or trustor) alive. The living trust is always revocable – which means you can cancel the trust and take back the assets at any time and for any reason as long as you have capacity.

The advantages of a living trust for incapacity planning are the ability to keep your assets safe in the event of incapacity and the living trust will have specific instructions that must be adhered to, which limits the risk of abuse.

Your trust can be created in a way that will pass your assets on to your beneficiaries immediately upon your death, or you can designate that the distributions be portioned out over time and in amounts that you specify.

These trusts can also be used to protect a child's inheritance from his creditors. However, it is not a great Asset Protection strategy for the grantor.

• Read more about the requirements for creating a valid trust here

Yes, You Can Lose Everything!

You may think that your wealth is safe and that you don't need protection. But don't delude yourself and accept reality — for every 60 minutes you spend making money, spend 60 seconds thinking about how to protect it!