Top Five Real Estate Trusts Used by East Enders

The East End is a legacy community where families summer by the ocean, bay and wineries for continual generations. These families engage in strategic succession planning, whereby a trust, as an essential planning tool, is generally the best vessel to pass one’s Hamptons or North Fork real estate onto the next generation. A trust can address both federal and New York State estate tax issues, which can be crippling if ignored.

New York State taxes estates valued over $4,187,500 in 2016 at a rate that can reach up to 16%. In addition to New York State’s estate tax, the federal government taxes estates over $5,450,000 in 2016 at a rate that can reach up to 40%. So all individuals who don’t want their family’s summer home to fall victim to the tax collector must consider how best to pass their legacy onto the next generation.

Even with lower real estate valuations, trusts remain an essential succession-planning tool because they can prevent creditors from seizing certain properties and can control future generations from engaging in an undesired liquidation of the family’s home. 

To read the full article with the list of 5 of the more common trusts used by East Enders, click here.