ESTATE PLANNING & CONTINUITY
instructional directions that navigate through generations
Anticipate inevitability to secure a present and certain future
Continuity begins with coherence. How decisions are made, and who is empowered to make them, are what matters most. Succession prepares the people, processes, and institutions that will hold those responsibilities, and documented protocols preserve the reasoning for why they do. Every element is formulated to the purpose it serves and channeled through the dimensions of relevant legal form and economic substance. At Fortuity, we run point on the scene and behind it, so plans perform as intended long after they are set in motion.
Transferring assets is the smallest part of what a trust can accomplish. The architecture that outlives a grantor carries the authority, and the standards that govern value, anchoring it as leadership turns over and circumstances progress. Treated as a living system, an estate plan adapts through change and evolves in form, so the next generation inherits a working model and the boundaries to live by.
Trust Development & Design
Instruments are authored to the full spectrum of complexity and intent.
Revocable Trust
Amendable through life, this living instrument directs assets with continuity at death while probate stays avoided. Ownership transitions on the grantor's schedule, under provisions open to revision at any moment, preserving full authority until the day it transfers by intention.
Irrevocable Trust
Permanence defines this conveyance. Assets leave the taxable estate the moment funding occurs, settling beyond the reach of transfer taxation and beyond second thoughts. What departs the grantor's name acquires durability the law respects, governed by provisions authored once and honored for the life of the instrument.
Dynasty Trust
Calibrated to carry wealth past children, past grandchildren, past the horizon most documents contemplate. Transfer taxation occurs a single time at funding, and the legacy compounds for generations after, insulated from each successive estate it would otherwise pass through.
Life Insurance Trust
An irrevocable life insurance trust (ILIT) holds policies outside the estate, converting death benefits into liquidity untouched by transfer taxation. Premiums fund the instrument during life, and proceeds arrive precisely where intended, exactly when needed, at the moment liquidity matters most.
Charitable Remainder
Charitable remainder trust (CRT) ensures income flows to the grantor for life or a term of years, and the remainder passes to philanthropy. Appreciated assets convert inside the trust free of immediate capital gains recognition, pairing a present income stream with a charitable deduction earned at funding.
Special Needs Trust
Provision for a beneficiary with disabilities continues while eligibility for government benefits stays preserved. Resources supplement what public programs deliver, and the safety net remains intact for the duration of the beneficiary's life.
IDIT / IDGT
Income taxation separates from estate inclusion inside this intentionally defective instrument, termed an IDIT or IDGT interchangeably. The grantor pays the income tax while assets appreciate beyond the taxable estate, and every payment quietly amplifies the transfer.
SLAT
A spousal lifetime access trust (SLAT) passes assets beyond the taxable estate while the grantor's spouse remains a permissible beneficiary. The exemption gets applied during life, household access to the wealth continues, and the appreciation that follows belongs to the next generation.
GRAT
A grantor retained annuity trust (GRAT) returns the principal through fixed annuity payments while appreciation above the hurdle rate passes to beneficiaries free of gift taxation. Growth transfers, the principal comes home, and the technique repeats as often as the market rewards it.
Trust the Process
Intake & Asset Discovery
Forensic inventory of assets, titling, beneficiary designations, family dynamics, and surrounding circumstances. Objectives surface through deliberate inquiry, and the findings dictate which instruments the situation actually requires.
Instrument Drafting & Preparation
Every provision is calibrated to intent, taxation, and the law of the chosen situs. Language receives counsel-level scrutiny before any signature page exists, and each clause earns its place in every document.
Funding & Retitling Execution
Assets move into a trust through deeds, assignments, and beneficiary redesignations, transferred account by account until ownership aligns with the document. Each transfer is confirmed and recorded, converting intention into operating reality.
Administration & Ongoing Review
Trustee duties, distributions, accountings, and tax filings continue for the life of the instruments under coordinated oversight. Periodic examination keeps provisions aligned with changed laws and changed circumstances, and amendments follow when either demands it.