Finances & Money

What Assets Should Be Added to a SLAT?

A SLAT, or a Spousal Lifetime Access Trust, is one of the best things for estate management, which is one of the reasons why it’s becoming more popular. It’s a legal arrangement that’s designed to help people transfer their assets from their estate while providing spousal access at the same time. In fact, a SLAT allows you to remove up to $12.06 million from your estate and put it in an irrevocable trust for your spouse.

Here are a few of the assets that should be added to SLAT to ensure that it does what it’s supposed to do, which is to provide your significant other with access to the savings that they need to maintain a stress-free lifestyle.

Real Estate

The first asset that you should add to a SLAT is real estate. If you have acquired real estate over your lifetime, it’s a good idea to make sure that it will benefit your spouse if need be. This is one of the reasons why you should make sure that any real estate that you acquire is legally documented, which is a requirement for adding it to a SLAT.

Make sure that you’re a part of the 33% of adults in the United States who have created documents for estate planning. It doesn’t take a lot of time or resources to do this, and the result is that it will be available to your significant other when they need it. You simply need to find a professional who will help you with the task, and you can be sure that your real estate won’t have to be put through lengthy and costly steps for it to benefit your loved ones.

Business Interests

Another asset that you need to add to a SLAT when you create one is business interests. If you have a business or two that you’ve started, it’s important to make sure that its interests will be protected when you’re no longer able to take care of them yourself. Who better to entrust this to than your spouse? With legal assistance, you can find out the steps that you need to take so that you can add this to your SLAT effectively.

With 1.3 million lawyers in America, it shouldn’t be difficult for you to find one who can help you through this process. They’ll tell you the documents that you need to acquire as well as the processes to follow so that your business is in a SLAT. It’s a good idea to hire a professional for this because you’ll end up saving a lot of time in the process and bypass having to work on lengthy research processes, which may still leave you unaware of some crucial details.

Cash

The final and most obvious asset to add to the SLAT that you create is cash. If you’ve been saving money and have accumulated some in your bank accounts, you should make sure that it will be accessible to your spouse and dependents when the time comes that they need it. This is something that will be extremely easy once the money is included in a SLAT. Your spouse will have access to the bank accounts, and they won’t have to go through court processes just to access what is rightfully theirs. This way, you can be sure that the ones you love are taken proper care of if something happens that makes it hard for you to keep taking care of them.

Find a lawyer who is well-informed about SLATs and the benefits that they offer. With their assistance, you can put in place financial securities that will enable them to live the lives that you want them to live. As a result, you’re also going to enjoy significant peace of mind because you’ll know that you can live your best lives with them, enjoying every moment to the fullest.