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Now offering Testamentary Trusts

Establish a Testamentary Trust under your Last Will and Testament as an effective way to manage assets for beneficiaries after you pass away.

Get Started

How to Create a Testamentary Trust at Trust & Will:

1

Create a Will-Based Estate Plan.

Get started by creating an account and selecting a Will-Based Estate Plan. We make it easy by guiding you through questions one step at a time.

2

Add age-based conditions to your distributions.

As you move through the process, you will be asked if you'd like to add conditions to your beneficiary distributions. Select "at specific ages (up to three)" or "at a minimum age."

3

A Testamentary Trust provision will be added to your Will.

That's it! By adding an age-based condition to one or more of your distributions, you will have a Testamentary Trust clause added to your Last Will and Testament.

Your dedicated support team.

Questions about your plan? Don’t rely on googling or guesswork—your support team is on the case. Even if we’re not in-office, we always respond as soon as possible. We’re here to make the process easy.

We’re available:

• Monday-Friday 7am-5pm PT

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Testamentary Trust: Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. It is available as part of the Will-Based Estate Plan in all fifty states at no additional cost.

Simply get started on your state specific Will. Adding conditions to your distributions will add the Testamentary Trust language to your Estate Plan.

A Testamentary Trust can be a valuable tool used to set up a financial future for minor children or anyone else who wouldn’t be able to handle large sums of money or valuable inheritances. They can also be a good way to control estate taxes.

No, a Testamentary Trust is not an effective strategy to avoid probate. Unlike Living Trusts, since they’re created through a Will, all the assets that will eventually end up in a Testamentary Trust must first go through the costly, lengthy, often stressful process known as probate. Probate is the legal court proceeding that validates a Will and begins the process of settling an estate.

Once the Testamentary Trust is established and funded, like all other Trusts, assets held inside it are Trust-owned. However, there are still three distinct parties involved with a Testamentary Trust.

  • There is the Grantor - who will be deceased if the Trust is in existence.
  • There is the Trustee - who was selected by the Grantor to manage assets in the Trust on behalf of the beneficiaries.

There is one or more beneficiaries - who will ultimately benefit from the Trust’s assets.

Beneficiaries are not responsible for taxes on their distributions from a Testamentary Trust, but the Trust itself might be subject to taxes on any income that’s generated.