Living Will in Pennsylvania
A family member has made the rounds of three attorneys (in
Pennsylvania) seeking to establish a trust for a disabled adult child.
The adult child receives a Social Security Disability, and the monies
from the trust would be to maintain the family-owned property in which
she now resides.
But all three lawyers claimed that in our state, you can't establish a
trust unless it will be over a certain amount. Two claimed a figure
of @$65,000, another said $250,000.
This seems impossible to be true, but I asked this relative if the
lawyers were dissuading her because of any costs involved in
administrating a trust. (I personally don't know, which is why I'm
posting here.) Could the attorneys have felt that the costs of
administration would somehow eat away at the funds the disabled adult
child badly needs?
If there are no, or minimal, costs in administrating an estate, or if
these costs could be minimized by having another family member (as
opposed to a bank or attorney) do the administering, then can someone
give me an idea as to why the attorneys would have all tried to talk
her out of it?
For a "living will" trusts, both revocable and non-revocable, there
is no requirement that the trust be funded at the time of creation.
I'm sure this is true in California, but I see no reason why there
would be a difference in other states.
I would have hoped that somebody with specific knowledge of PA law
would respond, but that's the best I can do.
You might also check on misc.taxes.moderated for confirmation that
certain estate-tax-avoiding trusts have no lower funding limit --
I know there's someone there with a PA practice, but I don't think
she's a CPA.