Which is best a Family Trust, Estate Trust or Estate Plan? Suggestions!!!

Only your mother can create a trust, if appropriate. She should speak with the attorney that prepared her will and POA for guidance.

Adding more people to the decision making process usually makes life more complicated not less. A trust does not, in and of itself, help make her money last. If she is incapacitated then you have the ability through her POA to handle all of her affairs. What a trust would do is avoid the probate process. Certainly, adding your name to CD's would accomplish the same thing. There would not be a tax to you if the accounts were made payable on death. The only taxes would be those owed by her estate if she is over the state or federal estate tax levels. Your mom should be able to contact the bank so that she no longer has to sign every time you buy a new CD. Your POA should cover this, but if it does not you should have her sign a new POA that allows it. Good luck!

Please be advised that the foregoing discussion is a generalized and hypothetical answer based upon incomplete facts and is not intended to serve as legal advice to you, nor should you regard it as an attorney-client communication or as creating an attorney-client relationship. If you desire legal advice concerning the situation you have described you should contact an attorney who has substantive experience in the fields pertaining to your question.

If the Bank will open the account with her social security number with your name as POA for mom's name, the tax reporting would be "attached" to your mom's social, not yours.

Talk to the Banker and find out what the Bank will agree to. If your local bank won't cooperate, go visit your mom and go into the bank with her to open a CD with the POA and establish as relationship with the Bank.

(By the way - POA or not, I would have one of your sisters or brothers "audit/review" all the financial work you do for mom to make sure no one complains or accuses you of misusing funds down the road......)

You should probably contact an elder law attorney in Kansas. There are all sorts of issues here that need to be addressed. Your mother may be eligible for Medicaid or other benefits. Don't move any money or transfer assets until you have had a chance to speak with someone knowledgeable in this area.

If you can't find someone on Avvo, you can look for someone who is a member of ElderCounsel. (www.eldercounsel.com).

A "family trust", an "estate trust", and an "estate plan" are 3 different names for what are probably the same thing. An "estate plan" usually refers to a will, a living trust, a durable power of attorney for finances, and a durable power of attorney for health care (sometimes called a "living will" or an "advance health care directive").

A "family trust" usually just means a revocable trust (a/k/a a living trust or a revocable living trust) that was created for the family.

An estate trust might be a family trust or just a trust created under a will.

A trust (family trust, estate trust, estate plan, revocable trust, etc.) can help in managing her property & finances. It would state that when your mother is unable to manage her finances and her property by herself, the person named as "successor trustee" would be able to do so for her. You might be able to do the same thing with her durable POA, but as you can see, banks don't like to rely on the authority granted under a POA (even though they're supposed to).

I strongly recommend that you do NOT put her money in your name, for a whole host of reasons, the least of which is the possible tax consequences.

I also recommend that if your mother does establish a trust she chooses only ONE child at a time to act as the trustee - naming more than one (forming a "committee") is usually a disaster.

The information you obtain at this site is not, nor is it intended to be, legal advice. You should consult an attorney for individual advice regarding your own situation.