– Rather than one-time, court-supervised liquidation or distribution, assets and funds in your Trust can be managed, for example, for the benefit of surviving spouse or for the benefit of children (and in contemplation of higher education, age, etc.), whether minors or not;
– no need to probate with the court, since your Trust is a private contract, binding the Trustee to act in accord with its provisions and defining benefits, and when or if such benefits should change; Trustee reviews assets owned by the Trust and manages, distributes or writes checks per beneficiary provisions;
– a Trust is written so that it could save you estate taxes, in the event you exceed the Unified Tax Credit; the UTC is relatively high now but I like to draft Trusts as if the threshold may come down or assets may exceed what clients anticipate;
– amending a Trust is a simple matter: Grantors should normally reserve the right and authority to amend the Trust, then amendments may be made from time to time without re-writing the entire document.