If you are interested in estate planning or creating a trust, New Hampshire is one of the friendliest states in which to do so. New Hampshire is known for its continual efforts to provide progressive, efficient, and flexible trust management rules for residents as well as nonresidents.
It's always best to speak with an experienced trusts and estates attorney about the intricacies of the NH's relevant laws on trusts. If you're thinking about wealth preservation and management of wealth for the next generation, here are three reasons why New Hampshire’s trust environment works for clients.
Revising an Irrevocable Trust in NH
New Hampshire law allows for a process called “decanting” to take place. Under certain circumstances, this process offers a trustee of an irrevocable trust the ability to revise specific aspects of the trust by creating a new trust and transferring some or all of the assets from the first trust to the second trust. While this should not be done without the advice of an attorney due to potential restrictions, trust decanting is a useful tool for modernizing a trust.
Protecting Your Confidential Conversations
When it comes to trust administration, it has been unclear whether beneficiaries could gain access to the confidential discussions that took place between an attorney and a client. New Hampshire law confirmed in 2014 that it respects the confidentiality of the attorney-client relationship, including trustees, trust protectors, and trust advisors. New Hampshire residents can be confident that private discussions with a lawyer will stay private, as they should.
Determining Trust Validity
New Hampshire makes determining trust validity both easy and convenient by permitting the individual who wrote the trust to ask the court to declare the trust’s validity at the time of creation. This process reduces the possibility that the trust will be challenged in court after the grantor has either lost the capacity to manage his or her affairs or has died. While the process requires the grantor to reveal the terms of the trust in a court proceeding, if it appears that trust administration may become contentious, the process helps to avoid lengthy, costly litigation in the future.
These are just a few of the reasons why New Hampshire is a great place to administer your trust. With an accessible East Coast location, New Hampshire also created a trust court that is focused exclusively on trust dispute resolution. New Hampshire is committed to creating an efficient and flexible legal environment for clients interested in utilizing trust to manage and transfer wealth.
Don’t hesitate to reach out to the experienced team of professionals at Upton & Hatfield for legal advice regarding wills, trusts, and estate planning.