Giving Back in West Palm Beach: How Does My Charitable Trust Vary From My Trust for My Wife and Children?

Are you considering setting up a charitable West Palm Beach trust?  Do you know how these trusts differ fromyour typical private trusts? The answer may surprise you, check out this quick reference guide. Giving back in a trust or will is a great thing to do but if you do not do it correctly you risk the gift failing and reverting back to your estate and heirs. Learn more and master your estate plan!

Charitable Trusts

• The Courts have crafted different rules when it comes to charitable trusts.
• Do you know what they are?
• For one thing your trust should have indefinite beneficiaries.
• But wait a minute, isn’t the rule in West Palm Beach that my trust has to haveidentifiable beneficiaries?
• Yes it is but remember that is for private trusts and these are charitable.
• Also the trust may be perpetual.
• What does that mean?
• It should be designed to go on forever so to get the maximum charitable benefit out of it.
• Why is this different from normal private trusts?
• Your West Palm Beach revocable trust is subject to rules against it going on forever, this is not so for your charitable trust.
• Also there is an old doctrine called cy pres that applies in West Palm Beach only for charitable trusts.
• Suppose you made a will when you were a young man that said you wanted to donate all of your money to the cure of a disease.
• Forty five years later at the reading of your will all the money goes into a charitable trust, to find the cure for that disease.
• What if the disease has already been cured?
• Then the doctrine kicks in and the court will try to find another charity that is close enough.
• Normally a trust is enforced in West Palm Beach by the beneficiaries, by suing the trustee.
• So who is going to enforce a charitable trust given that the beneficiaries are not distinct and identified?
• For one thing during your lifetime, you the settlor may choose to enforce the trust against the beneficiary in West Palm Beach probate court.
• Also a qualified beneficiary can still bring suit.
• Interestingly the attorney general can also enforce these.
• Are you drafting a charitable trust?
• Get the rules straight and give back to the community.