Ingram, TX Estate Planning Law Firms & Lawyers

Yes. You can set up multiple living trusts. However, what I have done in the past is to set up one living trust, and then have multiple irrevocable sub trusts. Each sub trust provides that upon a sale of the asset (i.e. real property) that the trust owns, unless a 1031 exchange occurs, the Irrevocable sub trust is terminated. The sole beneficiary of the irrevocable sub trust is the primary revocable living trust. If you (i.e. the trustee) want to buy one or more other properties, you just create a new irrevocable sub trust. I first began using this method with a client who owned multiple preschools, and the real property upon which they were located. Even with insurance, there is substantial risk of liability based upon the acts of employees, or just rumors about the school. In the 1980's commercial trustees lobbied for changes in the liability of trustees of California trust estates following changes in the law that required remediation of contaminated real property in California. Commercial trustees found themselves with unlimited liability when they merely held title to a parcel of real property that had been leased to a company that caused the contamination, or upon which contamination had migrated. There were others who were responsible for the contamination, but in many cases the companies not longer existed or did not have the resources to perform the remediation and filed bankruptcy.

No you don't. But anytime you disinherit an heir, you want to do it carefully and deliberately, and with the assistance of an attorney, to minimize the opportunity to contest.

I am not exactly sure what you mean by an "outside child." If you simply mean someone who is disinherited by the Will, the answer is generally no. There is an exempt property allowance of $14k that can be claimed by any spouse or child, so there is a chance the child could elect that. Otherwise, unless the Will is contested, the child would not be entitled to anything. The family could decide to give him something anyway. But there would be no legal requirement to do so.