Self-Paced Online Course
Trusts
The property-holding arrangement behind asset protection, tax planning, and the transfer of ownership — its core rules, its players, and its pitfalls, explained.
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How trusts hold, protect, and transfer assets
Trusts are property-holding arrangements used extensively in business, estate planning, and intellectual property. They can be formed to protect assets, minimize tax liabilities, and transfer ownership of every form of asset.
This module presents the basic law of trusts — trust formation, trust failure, the rights and powers of the trustee, the powers of the beneficiary, and the rights of creditors — along with the real-world situations where trusts are most often put to work and the issues that can arise once one is in place.
A certificate of completion is awarded when you successfully complete the course.
Learning Objectives & Outcomes
What you'll be able to do
- ✓Explain what a trust is and how it works as a property-holding arrangement used in business, estate planning, and intellectual property.
- ✓Identify the basic rules of U.S. trust law and the roles of the settlor, the trustee, and the beneficiary.
- ✓Form a valid trust by satisfying the requirements needed to create one properly.
- ✓Recognize the circumstances that cause a trust to fail, and the consequences when it does.
- ✓Describe the rights, duties, and powers of the trustee, including their fiduciary obligations.
- ✓Explain the powers and rights held by the beneficiary of a trust.
- ✓Assess how the rights of creditors interact with trust assets and a beneficiary's interest.
- ✓Distinguish among the major types of trusts and choose the right structure for a given goal.
- ✓Use trusts to protect assets, minimize tax liabilities, and transfer ownership of different kinds of assets.
- ✓Modify or terminate an existing trust, and anticipate the issues that can arise over a trust's life.
- ✓Recognize the situations in business and estate planning where trusts are most often used.
Course Sections
Seven sections, in sequence
- 01Trusts: Introduction & Basic Rules
- 02Trusts: Forming, Modifying & Terminating a Trust
- 03Trusts: Divided Rights, Duties & Powers
- 04Trusts: Types of Trusts
- 05Trusts: Failure
- 06Trusts: Situations Where Trusts Are Often Used
- 07Trusts: Issues That Can Arise
Goes Well With
Round out the legal & structuring toolkit
Trusts sits within a cluster of business-law and structuring courses. These SVBS courses extend your command of how companies are organized, how deals are documented, and what happens when things go wrong:
Ready When You Are
Start the Trusts course today
Self-paced, 10 study hours, included with your SVBS subscription alongside the full course library and Prof, your AI course tutor — and you earn a certificate of completion when you finish.
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