Who should be named as beneficiaries, and who should serve as trustee?
You and your spouse are typically the primary beneficiaries of the trust with, perhaps, your children and grandchildren as beneficiaries after your deaths. Typically, you serve as your own trustee (or co-trustee with, say, your spouse or child or a financial institution), meaning you retain control of your assets as long as you are able to manage your own affairs. If you become unable to manage your own affairs, another trustee, known as the successor trustee, takes over. When you die, the trust becomes irrevocable, and the trustee distributes the assets as the trust document specifies or keeps them in trust for the beneficiaries, if that is what you have arranged.
