Posted by Bill Gatten on April 05, 1999 at 13:48:07:
Paul,
In all candor, if your land trust were to be called into question by the courts, it might not withstand the test of the courts. If you retain all the elements of responsiblity and direction, the entire package become a simple Grantor’s Trust at best (a dry trust) wiith no tax benefits flowing to any but the grantor. However, if you have no agenda other than maintaining privacy, then creating a Grantor’s Trust may not pose a serious problem.
on a land trust i have my sister(who has a different last name)as the trustee she lives in a different state. Would it be to risky to get power of attorney to sign as trustee when I am the beneficiary? thanks for the advance in replies
Actually, working for a title company, I can tell you that we would not rely on a power of attorney from a trustee unless the trust agreement actually allows the trustee to specifically give the power of attorney for the particular transaction.
The whole reasoning is that, the beneficiaries have delegated control of the property (in trust) over to the trustee. It is highly unlikely that they would want the person they delegated this power to (the trustee), to delegate this power to someone else.
Think about it. What if your sister gave the power of attorney to a neighbor or some stranger? Would you want them to act on your behalf? That is why a title company probably won’t insure using the POA. Too much of a chance for a fraud to occur.