How we help | Estate planning & succession
What happens to all of this when you're not here?
Trusts, business succession, and the ownership arrangements that decide whether your family inherits an orderly handover or a legal problem. Explained first, set up second.
A trust-owned LLC drawn out: trust at the top, LLC beneath it, business assets below that.
1200 x 750What we do, and the line we don't cross
We prepare trust formation documents through an established platform, handle the entity side where a business is involved, and keep the whole thing organized and consistent. That's real work and it's a real service.
We give no legal advice of any kind. We will not tell you which arrangement suits your family, whether a trust will protect a particular asset, or how your estate should be structured. Those are legal questions and they belong with a licensed attorney.
When a situation gets complicated enough to need a lawyer, we say so and hand off rather than pressing on. That handoff goes to the LegalZoom partner program. We are compensated when you use it, which you should know before we suggest it. Knowing where that line sits is part of what you're paying for, and we'd rather tell you about the referral fee than have you find out.
Who this is for
Mostly people who've built something and never documented what happens to it
- Business owners whose company would stall, or be sold badly, if they stopped showing up tomorrow.
- People with property, accounts, and no written plan beyond a vague intention.
- Owners who've heard trusts mentioned and can't work out whether it applies to them or is just something wealthy people do.
- Anyone who's been told to "just put it in a trust" without being told what that actually involves.
You don't need to be wealthy for this to matter. You need to have something, and people who depend on it.
The vocabulary
The arrangements people mean when they say "trust"
Descriptions, not recommendations. What suits a given situation is a legal question, and we're describing the pieces rather than telling you which to use. A trust is a set of instructions with assets attached, not a magic box that makes things disappear.
| Arrangement | What it is | Worth understanding |
|---|---|---|
| Revocable living trust | A trust the creator can generally change or revoke during their lifetime. | Used for succession and often to keep assets out of probate. Generally does not shield the creator's assets from their own creditors, which surprises people. |
| Irrevocable trust | A trust whose terms restrict changing or ending it. | Can offer estate-planning and asset-protection benefits when properly structured. The protection is not automatic, and you give up control to get it. |
| Business trust | A trust arrangement holding or operating business assets. | Legal treatment, trustee liability, and tax classification all depend on the arrangement and the governing law. |
| Statutory trust | A trust-based entity formed under a specific state statute. | Often used for investment, holding, or specialized business purposes rather than ordinary operating companies. |
| Land trust | A trustee holds title to real estate for beneficiaries. | Can simplify certain property arrangements and offer limited privacy. Does not by itself provide liability protection. |
| Trust-owned LLC | An ordinary LLC whose membership interest is held by a trust. | Pairs the LLC's liability structure with the trust's succession goals. The LLC still has to be run properly for either to work. |
Privacy, liability protection, and asset protection are three different things, and they're routinely sold as one. Privacy keeps information off public records. Liability protection separates business obligations from personal assets. Asset protection is a further layer of planning with its own rules and limits.
An arrangement can deliver one and none of the others. Anyone describing a single structure as all three at once is selling.
How the pieces fit
Where a trust and a business meet
The common arrangement for an owner-operated business is straightforward in shape, even when the drafting isn't.
The trust
Holds the ownership interest. Names who receives it, when, and under what conditions.
The LLC
The operating entity. Contracts, bank accounts, liability separation, business credit.
The business
Equipment, property, receivables, goodwill. Everything the work actually runs on.
Illustration only. Who controls what, how it's taxed, and whether any protection holds all depend on the trust documents, the operating agreement, and the law where you are. A revocable trust can help an owner plan succession without giving up control. An irrevocable trust can serve narrower objectives, and it generally involves surrendering control, added tax complexity, and restrictions you cannot easily undo.
The most common failure isn't choosing the wrong structure. It's building the structure and then never transferring anything into it, or running the LLC so loosely that the separation stops meaning anything. An empty trust is an expensive filing cabinet. Paperwork alone doesn't do the job.
Corrections
Five things said confidently about trusts that aren't right
"A trust protects my assets from creditors."
A revocable trust generally doesn't, because you still control the assets. Some irrevocable arrangements can, when structured properly and set up well before any claim exists. Setting one up after trouble starts tends to go badly.
"Trusts are for rich people."
Probate cost and delay fall hardest on modest estates, and a business with no succession plan causes the same problem at any size. The question is whether anyone depends on what you've built, not how much it's worth.
"I set up the trust, so I'm covered."
An empty trust does nothing. Assets have to actually be transferred into it, titles retitled, beneficiary designations reviewed. This step gets skipped constantly, often by people who paid for the documents.
"A trust means no taxes."
The IRS treats revocable and irrevocable trusts differently, and an irrevocable trust can have several different federal tax treatments depending on how it's structured. None of them is "none."
"A will does the same job."
They do different things. A will directs what happens after death and generally goes through probate. A trust can operate during your lifetime and may avoid probate for what it holds. Most plans use both.
Do it yourself
What to do this week, free, before anyone charges you
Two of these take an afternoon and matter more than most of what follows.
- Review every beneficiary designation you have. Retirement accounts, life insurance, payable-on-death accounts. These pass outside a will and outside a trust, and they're frequently years out of date. Marriages, divorces, births, and deaths all should have triggered a review and usually didn't.
- Write down what you actually own, and where. Accounts, property, the business, equipment, digital assets. One page. Most families spend the first weeks after a death simply trying to find things.
- Write down who would run the business on Monday if you couldn't. If the honest answer is nobody, that's the finding, and it's worth knowing now.
- Check whether your operating agreement says anything about what happens to your interest if you die. Most single-member agreements don't.
- Find out whether your state's probate process is slow and expensive or relatively quick. It varies enormously, and it changes how much a trust is worth to you.
Where we come in
What we'll actually do for you
We handle
- Preparing trust formation documents through an established platform.
- Forming or restructuring the LLC where a business is part of the picture.
- Getting the ownership interest documented consistently across the entity records.
- Walking you through what each arrangement does, in plain terms, before anything is signed.
- A checklist of what still needs transferring once the documents exist.
- Keeping the business side of your succession plan consistent with your entity filings.
We hand off
- Anything requiring a legal opinion about your situation.
- Blended families, disputed inheritances, or anyone likely to contest.
- Complex irrevocable arrangements and asset-protection planning.
- Large or unusual estates where tax exposure is a live question.
- Special needs planning, which has its own rules and real consequences for getting it wrong.
- Anything where the drafting itself is the hard part.
Handoffs go to the LegalZoom partner program, and NCC is compensated when you use it. We'll tell you plainly when you've crossed into that territory rather than pressing on with something we shouldn't be doing - and the referral fee isn't a reason to send you there sooner than the work requires.
Related
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Questions
What people actually ask
Do I need a trust, or is a will enough?
That's a legal question about your specific circumstances and we don't answer those. An attorney does.
What we can tell you generally is that they do different jobs. A will directs what happens after death and typically goes through probate. A trust can operate during your lifetime and may keep what it holds out of probate. Probate cost and delay vary enormously by state, which is a large part of why the answer differs from person to person.
Will a trust protect my assets from creditors?
A revocable trust generally will not, because you keep control of what's in it. Some irrevocable arrangements can, when properly structured and established well before any claim arises.
Whether any particular arrangement would protect any particular asset of yours is a legal question, and it's one where getting it wrong is expensive. That goes to an attorney.
Do you draft the trust yourselves?
We prepare trust formation documents through an established platform and handle the entity side where a business is involved. We do not practice law and we give no legal advice.
When a situation is complicated enough to need an attorney, we hand off to the LegalZoom partner program rather than pressing on with something we shouldn't be doing. NCC is compensated when you use that referral, and we're telling you so here rather than burying it.
Can my LLC be owned by a trust?
That arrangement is common and we can handle the entity side of setting it up. The LLC's membership interest is held by the trust rather than by you personally.
Whether it suits your situation, and how the documents should be drafted to achieve what you want, is a legal question. The practical warning worth repeating: the LLC still has to be run properly afterwards. Commingled funds and skipped filings undermine the structure no matter how well the trust was drafted.
What happens to my business if I die without a plan?
Generally it becomes part of your estate and goes through whatever process your state applies, which can take months. In the meantime, someone has to keep the business running, and often nobody has clear authority to sign anything, access the accounts, or make decisions.
That gap is the thing a succession plan exists to close. It's also why "who runs this on Monday" is the first question we ask business owners.
How much does this cost?
It depends on what's involved, and a number quoted before anyone has looked at your situation is a guess. Pricing gets discussed in the first conversation, before any agreement.
What we'll also tell you is when the honest answer is to spend the money on an attorney instead of on us. That happens, and saying so is cheaper for you than finding out later.
Sources
Check our work
Trust law is state law and varies considerably. Federal tax treatment comes from the IRS. Verify anything specific against your own state's rules or a licensed professional.
Affiliate disclosure. Ninja Credit Consultants LLC is compensated when a client uses the LegalZoom partner program through our referral. That compensation does not change what you pay and is disclosed here and at each point of mention.
Educational and document preparation support only. NCC does not provide legal advice of any kind and is not a law firm. No attorney-client relationship is created by this page or by working with us. Nothing here is a recommendation that any particular arrangement is suitable for you. Trust, estate, and asset protection planning should be reviewed with a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction, and tax treatment with a qualified tax professional.
Built something and never written down what happens to it?
Start with the free list above, particularly the beneficiary designations. Then tell us what you've got and who depends on it. If the right answer is an attorney rather than us, that's what you'll hear.