Trust Services

Creating and maintaining financial security for your business and your family is the primary role of a trust. And, because trust management can be complex, you can count on Horizon's highly experienced trust professionals to coordinate your investments and administer your personal trust directives. Trusts can serve many different purposes, such as charitable donations, avoiding probate, reducing or eliminating estate taxes, and controlling the disposition of assets after death for spouse, children and others.

Trust Under Will

A Will is a legal document that allows you to direct how your estate will be administered and distributed. By exercising your privilege of making a Will, you can accomplish numerous personal and financial objectives. Through a properly drawn Will, you can:

• Protect your family by making provisions to meet their financial needs
• Minimize taxes
• Name an executor who will ensure your wishes are carried out
• Establish trusts to manage the inheritances of any beneficiaries
• Avoid undue delays and unnecessary expenses
• Secure peace of mind

Estate Planning and Settlement

Choosing the right executor is a key phase of making a will. Almost everyone needs a will. If a valid will is lacking, a probate estate must be distributed according to the unbending laws of intestacy - a distribution that may bear little relationship to actual family needs or desires. Unfortunately, many individuals leave an unrecognized weak point in their wills: Spouses, relatives or business associates are designated to fill what is presumably the mostly "honorary" post of executor or personal representative.

In reality, estate settlement involves a demanding, complex set of tasks and the results, for better or worse, depend upon the experience, skills and judgment of those you designate to handle the job. The executor or personal representative you name in your will is responsible for safeguarding the assets of your estate, for paying proper debts, for contesting improper claims, for collecting sums owed the estate, and for filing estate and income tax returns. Your executor must decide what to sell (and when) to pay taxes and estate expenses and what to hold for distribution to your beneficiaries or to trusts you establish for their benefit.

In less complicated times, people relied on close relatives or friends to settle their estates. Today, naming an inexperienced executor is not only shortsighted but potentially costly.

In contrast, with specialized skills in all phases of estate administration, as your executor we're sure to be on hand when needed, and no relative or family friend could hope to match our experience and facilities. Yet our fees for estate settlement are no greater than inexperienced individuals might be entitled to receive.

Along with the peace of mind choosing a professional can bring to you and your family, our added estate planning services will provide several benefits for you:

• Investment Management (creating wealth)
• Asset Preservation (reducing exposure to taxes)
• Financial Security for your heirs
• Wealth Transfer according to your wishes

Trusts

Living Trust -- Now and future management for family funds

A Living Trust is a legal agreement under which you transfer ownership of assets to the trust to be managed by a trustee. The trustee is responsible for administering the trust and managing the trust assets. Having a trust does not mean you lose control over your assets. On the contrary, you maintain control by establishing your estate plan.

Benefits of a Living Trust:

• Prevents court control if you become incapacitated
• Can reduce or eliminate estate taxes
• Provides maximum privacy
• Provides quicker and more orderly distribution of assets at death.
• Allows you to avoid probate when you die
• Allows you to avoid multiple probates if you own assets in more than one state
• Are difficult to contest
• Prevents problems of joint ownership
• Prevents court-controlled finances when minor children inherit
• Allows assets to remain in trust until beneficiaries reach a specific age(s)
• Can protect and provide for dependents with special needs
• Can be changed or revoked at any time until incapacity or your death
• Brings all your assets together under one plan
• Professional asset management if you choose a corporate trustee, such as Horizon

A Living Trust can hold all types of assets from your investment portfolio to collectibles to your closely held business. More than anything, your Living Trust gives you peace of mind, knowing your loved ones are financially secure and your wishes are being followed.

Standby Trust -- Trust convenience and protection on a "ready when needed" basis

Suppose you enjoy doing your own investment homework now but foresee the day when you might become disabled, wish more freedom to travel or simply decide to take life easier. You should consider having a standby trust. We will stand ready to manage your money for you when needed (or for your spouse or other beneficiaries in the event of your death, including tax-saving provisions, if desired). Meanwhile, you retain complete control of your assets, complete freedom to keep on handling your own financial affairs.

Charitable Trusts -- Philanthropy and family financial protection are not conflicting objectives

Charitable trusts have long been an important part of estate planning. With trusts the benefit of owning securities or other assets can be split into two parts, present and future:

• One or more income beneficiaries can be given the immediate benefit of ownership in the form of periodic payments from the trust.  These income payments can last for a specified number of years or for a beneficiary's lifetime.
• One or more "remainder beneficiaries" receive the income-producing assets in the future, when the required income payments have been completed.  Both the right to receive trust income and the right to receive a trust's "remainder interest" can be valued for the purpose of granting income tax deductions, and also for the purpose of figuring gift or estate tax.
  

The charitable remainder trust distributes income payments to the donor or beneficiaries he or she designates. The income may be a fixed dollar amount, or it may be a "unitrust interest," that is, a specified percentage of the value of the trust, determined each year. A unitrust interest provides some inflation protection, in that the amount of the annual payments will grow as asset values rise. When the trust terminates, the property passes to the charity.

The charitable lead trust, in contrast, makes annual payments to a charity, normally for a specified number of years. When the trust ends, the assets pass to family members. This approach may be appropriate when adult children are already financially successful, or have been provided for, and assets will be passing to a younger generation.

There are many variations on these themes, each with important income, gift, estate and generation-skipping transfer tax consequences.  The key to using today's charitable trusts successfully is to design an approach tailored to your own particular set of charitable intentions and family financial planning objectives.