Under What Circumstances Does a Trust End?

Just like all good things, trusts must also come to an end eventually. However, many individuals who create trusts do not think about what or how this end will come. Understanding the various ways that trusts end, particularly how your trust might end, should be a very important part of the trust planning process.

First, let’s review what trusts are and why people use them. Trusts are extremely useful for managing property long after you are unable to do so yourself. When you create a trust and put your property inside of it you are called the “grantor.” During the drafting of the trust, the grantor will designate a person to manage the assets inside the trust, and this person is called the “trustee.” The trustee is bound by law to manage the trust in strict accordance with the instructions laid out within the “trust instrument” or trust document.

The most common way that a trust comes to its end is when the property inside it is completely spent and there are no assets left inside it. The trust’s assets might be exhausted after the last of them are paid out to beneficiaries. Alternatively, if property contained inside the trust – such as a house – is destroyed for some reason, then the trust will also likely come to an end.

In other cases, trusts end in accordance with their end dates, which are sometimes specified by the grantor. Also, grantors might specify that their trusts will end after a particular condition is met. For example, perhaps the trust will pay a child until he or she turns 25, or until the child graduates from high school.

Trusts are extremely flexible documents that can be molded to suit the individual needs of Florida estate planners. Educating estate planners about how trusts operate, the different options available and how trusts come to a close is an important part of the trust planning process at Kitroser Lewis & Mighdoll.

Source: Findlaw, “How does a trust end?” accessed Feb. 27, 2015