When California residents want to use their estate plans to protect their assets, they have multiple options they could use to do so. In particular, they could utilize trusts to remove assets from the estate and into the ownership of the trusts. Of course, someone also needs to be appointed to manage the assets.

When a person creates a trust, he or she is known as the trustmaker or the grantor. Commonly, the person who creates a revocable trust will also be the trustee, or the person who manages the property kept by the trust. However, the trustee does not have to be the trustmaker, and it is wise for the trustmaker to name successor trustees to take over in the event that the original trustee becomes incapacitated or passes away.

The trustee does not have to be a single person. The trustmaker could appoint co-trustees or could even utilize an institution, like a bank, to act as the trustee. Whoever is chosen should be trustworthy and responsible. Having financial knowledge is also a benefit, but it is not strictly necessary for a trustee.

Trusts can be immensely useful estate planning tools and many other decisions aside from appointing trustees go into utilizing them in estate plans. In order to understand how this option works and how it can protect assets, interested California residents may want to gain information from local legal resources. Having reliable information that applies to their specific circumstances could help those individuals better implement this planning tool and ensure that it covers the bases that the trustmakers deem appropriate.