http://www.noss123.com/
The most common purposes for trusts are as follows:
1. *Privacy.* Trusts may be created purely for privacy. The terms of a
will are public and the terms of a trust are not. In some families this
alone makes use of trusts ideal.
2. *Spendthrift Protection.* Trusts may be used to protect one's self
against one's own inability to handle money. It is not unusual for an
individual to create an inter vivos trust with a corporate trustee who may
then disburse funds only for causes articulated in the trust document. These
are especially attractive for spendthrifts. In many cases a family member or
friend has prevailed upon the spendthrift/settlor to enter into such a
relationship.
3. *Wills and Estate Planning.* Trusts frequently appear in wills
(indeed, technically, the administration of every deceased's estate is a
form of trust). A fairly conventional will, even for a comparatively poor
person, often leaves assets to the deceased's spouse (if any), and then to
the children equally. If the children are under 18, or under some other age
mentioned in the will (21 and 25 are common), a trust must come into
existence until the *contingency age* is reached. The executor of the
will is (usually) the trustee, and the children are the beneficiaries. The
trustee will have powers to assist the beneficiaries during their minority.
4. *Charities.* In some common law jurisdictions all charities must
take the form of trusts. In others, corporations may be charities also, but
even there a trust is the most usual form for a charity to take. In most
jurisdictions, charities are tightly regulated for the public benefit (in
the UK, for example, by the Charity Commission).
5. *Unit Trusts.* The trust has proved to be such a flexible concept
that it has proved capable of working as an investment vehicle: the unit
trust.
6. *Pension Plans.* Pension plans are typically set up as a trust,
with the employer as settlor, and the employees and their dependents as
beneficiaries.
7. *Corporate Structures.* Complex business arrangements, most often
in the finance and insurance sectors, sometimes use trusts among various
other entities (e.g. corporations) in their structure.
8. *Asset Protection.* The principle of "asset protection" is for a
person to divorce himself or herself personally from the assets he or she
would otherwise own, with the intention that future creditors will not be
able to attack that money, even though they may be able to bankrupt him or
her personally. One method of asset protection is the creation of a
discretionary trust, of which the settlor may be the protector and a
beneficiary, but not the trustee and not the sole beneficiary. In such an
arrangement the settlor may be in a position to benefit from the trust
assets, without owning them, and therefore without them being available to
his creditors. Such a trust will usually preserve anonymity with a
completely unconnected name (e.g. "The Teddy Bear Trust"). The above
is a considerable simplification of the scope of asset protection. It is a
subject which straddles ethical boundaries. Some asset protection is legal
and (arguably) moral, while some asset protection is illegal and/or
(arguably) immoral.