Trust and Estate Administration

Personal Trusts
A trust is an extremely effective way to manage your assets while you’re here and to pass those assets onto heirs, as instructed, when you’re gone. It can also provide significant tax advantages to help you preserve those assets.
Our trust specialists have decades of experience. It’s our goal to not only maintain your wealth but also the philosophy and values that go with it. We’d be happy to help you manage:
  • Taxation and legal matters
  • Investment management
  • Property management
  • Mineral management
  • Charitable contributions
Guardianships
For those who can’t handle their own financial responsibilities, like children or disabled adults, court-ordered guardianships protect their assets. A financial guardian is responsible for managing all assets in a prudent manner.
American State Bank is an impartial and experienced provider of:
  • Paying bills and ongoing expenses
  • Tax preparation
  • Cash flow requirements and living expenses
  • Managing all assets, including real estate
  • Annual court-required accounting
  • Collecting, investing and distributing income as necessary
  • Coordinating medical insurance filings and expenditures for medical equipment
When it comes to the financial responsibilities of guardianship, our experts take pride in using the highest ethical standards. It’s our goal to provide peace-of-mind and confidence in knowing that the financial affairs are in capable hands.
Special Needs Trusts
Often those with special needs require a different kind of trust. The Special Needs Trust helps provide current and future income to individuals with disabilities. Since government benefit recipients can only retain a minimum amount in assets for bare necessities (food, shelter and clothing), this trust helps supplement that.
Special Needs Trusts can help provide for additional needs such as:
  • Out-of-pocket medical expenses
  • Insurance
  • Personal care attendant
  • Support for life-enhancing services like education, recreation, living arrangements and social services
Our specialists can help meet the needs of a unique family dynamic while also maintaining the integrity and best quality of life for the beneficiary.
Living Trusts
Want to assure proper management of your assets during your lifetime? Want to maintain control and create peace of mind about the future? A Living Trust can help you do that. These come in many different forms and can be created to benefit you and / or your spouse, or other individuals you name. If you choose it can also continue beyond your lifetime to provide for loved ones.
This valuable estate-planning tool can relieve you of the duties of investment and protect you, financially, should you become ill or incapacitated for a prolonged period of time. It can minimize delays and expenses at the time of your death. And used wisely, a Living Trust can reduce a couple’s estate tax bill. It’s commonly designed to avoid probate.
Estates

Choosing the executor of your estate is an important and necessary part of planning for the transfer of property at time of death. At American State Bank, we take the time to listen carefully, explain complicated procedures and give your situation personal attention. That way we can help you select a representative to settle your estate according to your intentions.

In our view, good estate planning uses a combination of products, services and advisors to help you incur minimum expenses and provide for you and your loved ones for the future. Services we provide include:

  • Collecting and valuing all the assets
  • Filing any needed state and federal tax returns to include legally required reports to the court of record
  • Paying claims and debts of the decedent
  • Accounting to the heirs
  • Distributing the net assets to the beneficiaries of the estate (per your wishes)
  • Serving as your executor to carry out the terms of the will and settle the estate quickly, fairly and objectively