What should you know about establishing a trust?

You don’t have to be a CEO or multimillionaire to benefit from a trust. In fact, many people gain advantages from establishing one – so it may be useful to learn something about this common estate-planning tool.

Why would you want a trust? For one thing, if you have highly specific wishes on how and when you want your estate to be distributed among your heirs, then a trust could be appropriate. Also, you might be interested in setting up a trust if you’d like to avoid the sometimes time-consuming, usually expensive and always public process of probate. Some types of trusts may also he...