Thanks for your comments as I was beginning to doubt my original pretense. To be clear:
Fact: It's been a few years since I read through an trust created by the probate lawyer I worked for.
Fact: The only experience I have had with creating irrevokable trusts was observing the attorney setting them up for the purpose of avoiding probate. In this context, they were not created for people to avoid having too much money/assets so they could snag government assistance. These people had created retirement accounts, etc. to take care of themselves, of course, and were avoiding public disclosure of their assets through probate, plus doing wise estate tax planning.
Opinion: Government assistance is a very good thing for the unfortunate; anyone can become unfortunate by a tragic change in circumstance. I hope it would be there for me if I encountered tragic circumstances. But, abuse of the system will/is break/breaking the system.
Opinion: Government assistance not for the purpose of abuse through trusts or fraudulent transfers so that assistance will be there for the truly unfortunate. To take advantage of it when it is not necessary burdens the current working taxpayers and would be moral dishonesty for me. |
