Insights

June 6, 2025

Popular Trust Structures to Protect Your Wealth

In Estate Planning, Financial Planning

Trusts are among the most powerful, common, and flexible legal tools used to protect wealth in the United States. Trusts can serve a variety of purposes, from minimizing estate taxes to shielding assets from creditors, predators, future ex-spouses, and oftentimes from beneficiaries themselves. You can use trusts to identify how you would like assets to be distributed to your heirs, often with a great degree of specificity. Using trust structures can help you reduce the tax burden on you and your heirs, avoid your estate going through probate (a public process), and ensure a smoother process for heirs.

There are a wide variety of different trust structures, each with different purposes and advantages. This article explores commonly used trust structures and discusses when each may be appropriate.

Read or download “Popular Trust Structures to Protect Your Wealth” below to learn more about different types of trusts and their benefits:

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Contributions from: Anne Marie Stonich, CFP®, CPA