Having Your Cake And Eating It Too—Self-Settled Trusts
A self-settled trust, as it is referred to in the estate planning community, is generally an irrevocable trust that allows the creator (commonly referred to as the “settlor” or “grantor”) to be one of the beneficiaries, while providing many of the same benefits applicable to trusts where only family members are beneficiaries. Such benefits include building wealth outside of the taxable estate of the settlor, multi-generational planning, protecting family wealth from any potential future creditors and consolidating wealth management.