Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California

Re: setting up a trust for an ill sister

Attorney Giffen's advice is sound, and it may well be that you don't need a trust to accomplish your goal. By setting one up, though, you can avoid such problems as the need for probate of the accounts upon your and her deaths. This is particularly handy if you have a successor beneficiary in mind who would take the balance upon both of you passing. A joint account does this, but only upon the death of the FIRST of you. Also, if you are to die first, and your sister is incompetent, a court proceeding will be necessary to establish a guardian/conservator of the account for her benefit. If, however, you specify a successor "joint trustee" to follow you, that person automatically steps in to help sis manage the funds without the court proceeding and accompanying costs and time. Bottom line -- a joint account is fine until you are gone and it is left to sis to take care of herself. Then when she goes (without a trust), the burdensome and costly process of probate becomes necessary to pass it on to her intended heir. There are other benefits, too, that a qualified estate-planning attorney can explain. Kudos to you for caring enough for your sister to want to do this!

Re: setting up a trust for an ill sister

I dont think you need a trust to accomplish what you want to do for your sister. You simply need to set up a joint bank account, savings or money market that she can get access to when she needs it. Or you could just be on the account, or set up an account in her name but you be the only one that can draw from it. Make her the beneficiary of the account if something should happen to you. A simple trust could be set up but I think that if you are the only one contributing to the account you would want to set up some kind of account that you could control without the expense of setting up a trust. Try reading some books on Living trusts and see if you really need a trust first,then talk to your bank to see what they would suggest as to what type of account you need. Another possibility is to open a mutual fund account in her name that would allow her to draw from in the future. You might need to talk to a financial planner about how to set up the account and the tax planning for the account.