A trust is an important estate planning tool that can provide a number of benefits. It can protect assets from creditors and lawsuits, keep family disputes out of court, minimize taxes and provide greater flexibility in distributing funds to beneficiaries. However, the drafting of a trust is complex and requires careful consideration of all of its provisions. It can also take time and detailed record-keeping. It’s also important to understand how a trust works before you meet with an attorney, so that they can help you draft the most effective trust possible.

There is little settled agreement about what trust is or how it should be understood. Some philosophers believe that in order for a person to be justified in trusting, the reasons for their trust must be accessible to them and must be epistemically reliable (Govier 1998; Jones 1996). This view implies that a person can only justify their trust if they can articulate their beliefs about what caused it. Others, however, argue that the reasons for a trust are too complicated and numerous to be consciously considered by a person and that their justification is not necessarily in the epistemic realm.

Distrust is a similarly difficult concept to pin down. Distrust can be a feeling or a belief that someone is untrustworthy or that they will not treat you fairly, but there are several different accounts of distrust in the literature. Some accounts are broad, while others are narrow and serve a particular purpose, such as motivating people to resist tyranny.

For example, Meena Krishnamurthy (2016) offers a normative account of distrust that is based on Martin Luther King Jr.’s writings on civil rights, which she claims explains why people will be motivated to fight for their rights. She argues that distrust is a sense of fear that can motivate individuals to stand up for their rights and that it has a moral value in the context of political democracies.

One way to mitigate this complexity is to establish a revocable trust, which allows you to amend its terms during your lifetime. A revocable trust can also avoid probate, which is a process to determine the validity of a will and distribute assets upon death. It can be a less expensive and quicker alternative to a will.

Another option is an irrevocable trust, which is typically set up at the time of your death and cannot be amended or revoked. It can hold most assets, including cash, property and even life insurance proceeds. It is commonly used for beneficiaries with spending problems or special needs. It can require a trustee to distribute funds on a regular basis, such as monthly or after certain triggering events, like when the beneficiary reaches a specific age. It can also be a discretionary trust, which gives the trustee the authority to allocate assets to beneficiaries as they see fit. It is also common to include a spendthrift provision in an irrevocable trust.