Revocable Trust
Categories: Tax, Ethics/Morals, Trusts and Estates
"Kids, I am giving you 8,000 shares of whatever.com. It's going to sit in this revocable trust until you are 30. If, by that time, you have not married an admitted Packers fan, then the shares are revoked and I'll find some other Packer fan to give 'em to."
Revocable trusts are different from irrevocable most importantly from a tax perspective. In an irrevocable trust, the basis of the investment is fixed and the trust can be funded decades before your progeny would receive it; in a revocable trust, the IRS views it as not-really-a-gift, so taxes are levied after the dough from that trust is converted/sold/used.