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A trust is a formal, legal arrangement by which legal title and management responsibility for a person's property is given to a fiduciary, known as the trustee. The person who creates the trust is known as the grantor, settlor or donor. The property put into the trust is called the corpus (the body, literally), trust res (the thing in trust, literally), trust fund, or trust estate. Those who are designated to receive income from or ultimately the corpus of the trust are known as beneficiaries. Generally, filers need to report holdings and income from any trust or estate in which they, their spouse or dependent children hold a vested beneficial interest in principal or income. Income received in the form of a distribution from a trust is required to be reported by the filer in actual amount if a filer does not have a beneficial interest and the trust holdings have not been individually reported. Distributions to spouses and dependent children are not required to be reported. Consult your Ethics Official for assistance in reporting trusts.
When you create a trust, you transfer money or other assets to the trust.
You give up ownership of those assets in order to accomplish a specific financial goal or goals, such as protecting assets from estate taxes, simplifying the transfer of property, or making provision for a minor or other dependents.
When you establish the trust, you are the grantor, and the people or institutions you name to receive the trust assets at some point in the future are known as beneficiaries. You also designate a trustee or trustees, whose job is to manage the assets in the trust and distribute them according to the instructions you provide in the trust document.
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a relationship in which one person holds title to property, subject to an obligation to keep or use the property for the benefit of another.
Departments of the Treasury & Housing and Urban Development, Making Home Affordable Program - Cite This Source - This Definition- Browse Related Terms: agent, Beneficiary, Co-Homeowners, Deed, Default, Grantor, Negative Equity, Real property, Title, trust, trust deed, Trustee
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