In This Issue:

- Asset Protection Trusts in Virginia...Page 1

- Geriatric Care Managers: A Helping Hand When You (Or Your Loved One) Needs One...Page 2

- Excerpt from Asset Protection Trusts in Virginia:

As of July 1, 2012, residents of Virginia can now avail themselves of domestic asset protection trusts or qualified self-settled spendthrift trusts (“QSSST”), as they are commonly referred to. The Virginia Assembly amended and reenacted an existing section of the Virginia Code and added new sections 55 545.03:2 and 55-545.03:3 to allow for this new means of asset protection. In doing so, Virginia joins 12 other states that already permit such trusts.

The QSSST is an irrevocable, self-settled spendthrift trust created by a settlor where the settlor may retain beneficial interests which are generally not subject to seizure by a creditor. A spendthrift trust is a trust with a clause preventing spending down of assets or unwise borrowing against the assets by the beneficiary of the trust. In essence, it protects the beneficiary from themselves and shields them from some creditors. To receive the protection from creditors, a QSSST must be an irrevocable trust. Irrevocable generally means that once a trust has been created it cannot be amended or revoked by the settlor except in very unusual circumstances. In the case of the new Virginia statute, the term irrevocable means something very specific.

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