Estate planners often set up trusts without understanding the requirement that trust assets ought to be treated separately from the estate planner’s own assets.
Further, many estate planners are often reluctant to give up control over personal assets moved into a trust, as well as new assets acquired by the trust. The result is that often trust assets, including investment and bank accounts, are opened and/or registered in the name of the estate planner, rather than in the name of the trust.
Written by Phia van der Spuy – read the full article here.