Beneficiary Controlled Trusts | BCTs | Pierro, Connor, & Strauss, LLC

Protect Your Legacy with ‘Bloodline’ Planning.

If you want to ensure that the assets you’ve accumulated over your lifetime are protected and passed down through your family bloodline, a “Beneficiary Controlled Trust,” (or BCT), accomplishes that goal with powerful benefits.

The New York-based trust lawyers at Pierro, Connor & Strauss form and develop BCTs for their clients who may be concerned, for example, that your son’s estranged spouse will file a claim against assets you leave your heirs in a divorce proceeding; in effect, siphoning off the wealth you’ve worked a lifetime to accumulate. Or imagine that after you die, your daughter loses a lawsuit with a large cash settlement, which the creditor seeks to collect against the assets you left her. BCTs will insulate your children from these types of financial drains, including lawsuits, divorces, bankruptcies, and even Medicaid.

See Our Handout on Beneficiary Controlled Trusts

In effect, BCTs give you the strongest possible assurance that your assets will go to the people you choose, your children and grandchildren with little or no risk of dilution by third-party claims.

Trust Team

Louis W. Pierro

Aaron E. Connor

Caryn B. Keppler

Kristen A. Peck

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(866) 951-7526

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What is a Beneficiary Controlled Trust (BCT)?

BCTs are characterized by some common features:

Upon the grantor’s death (you), BCTs are seamlessly created as part of your trust
Each beneficiary, for instance, your son/daughter, becomes a trustee of his/her own trust
Trust assets can be distributed by the beneficiary/trustee for their own health, education, maintenance, and support and that of their family
Trustees can appoint another “independent” trustee to assess distributions made for purposes other than the beneficiary’s needs (any legitimate purpose)
The trustee can consider other sources of income to determine the beneficiary’s needs, for example a child with special needs due to a disability.
Upon the death of a beneficiary, trust assets will pass automatically to the beneficiary’s issue (i.e. your grandchildren)
As an alternative to the bloodline trust, a beneficiary can be given more authority through a limited power of appointment to redirect all or part of the trust to a spouse, charity, other individual in addition to their children or grandchildren.

These features give the beneficiary near-complete control over trust assets–while simultaneously erecting a barrier around those assets. It ensures that they are safe from creditor claims, divorcing spouses, and other predatory interests.

Why Do I Need a Beneficiary Controlled Trust or Bloodline Trust?

BCTs are referred to as “Bloodline Trusts” because they are an ideal structure to ensure your legacy and retain assets exclusively in your direct bloodline. PCS Attorneys recommend BCT’s when our clients fear that assets will be dissipated through a divorce, by claims from third-party creditors, in the event of a beneficiary’s bankruptcy, or by uncovered health care expenses.

What Makes Up a BCT?

The most critical aspect of the BCT structure is that it places control over trust assets in the hands of the primary beneficiary, who is also the trustee. That control is tempered with a special power of appointment. It enables them to appoint secondary, independent trustees for special purposes.

Call estate planning attorneys at Pierro, Connors, & Strauss, LLC

PCS has offices in Albany and New York City, as well as Long Island, Lake Placid, and Plattsburgh. We also represent families in New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Florida who want to establish trust structures for their beneficiaries while protecting the assets in those trusts from interests outside of the family’s bloodline.

Call us at your earliest convenience to confer with an estate planning attorney who can help you assess whether a BCT or some other estate planning structure will serve your and your family’s asset-protection needs.

Life Happens…..Are You Prepared?

Contact us today for a FREE consultation and we’ll be happy to help take the worry out of tomorrow so you can live today.

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