TrustEgg (YC W11) Allows Anyone To Set Up A Trust For Their Kids

I sincerely hope that you succeed. This is a brilliant idea. Here's why:<p>I think that we're at a Nash Equilibrium for Trusts, at the moment. That is, Trusts are only useful and good for sheltering assets because only a privileged few know how to use them to their advantage. Since the volume of people is small, and enough of those people are sufficiently influential, the IRS looks the other way.<p>As soon as a large amount of people can create trusts easily, I predict that two things will happen, roughly in order:<p>1) The IRS will attempt to reclassify trusts in a way that preserves revenue.<p>2) The privileged few who have always used trusts as a matter of routine financial planning will seek to create a new class of trusts that will not be vulnerable to #1.<p>Given that #1 is inevitable, and #2 will add some sunlight on things, I have to say that this is fascinatingly disruptive.

I hope this succeeds. I have 2 kids , and my basement is full of gifts from birthdays past, that they will probably never use. Now bear in mind that these gifts are from relatives with great intentions. If instead of those gifts, my kids had received a contribution to their trust funds , I think that would have been more beneficial.

Does someone who opens a trust account in 60 seconds on a web site really understand the legal, financial and tax implications of what they're doing?

This is exactly the kind of startup that we should encourage the most - it is taking a messy, complicated real-world problem that can only be solved by spending lots of money or doing tons of paperwork and turning it into an app that grandma can use!<p>Best of luck to the founders! Just signed up and sent the link to my friends with kids.

Brutally honest: if you can't get basic things like mixed content issues worked out, how do I trust you with the security of my money? First impressions are really important.

HN has a very diverse set of readers; is anyone knowledgeable able to provide insight as to why we would want to open a trust, and any implications it would have?<p>As a single-father I am very interested in any knowledge that can be shared on this subject.

Can anyone quickly sum up the benefits of trust funds over other forms of savings? Is it just a tax deduction?

This is really interesting. I've always thought there are a lot of opportunites in democratizing this sort of legal stuff.<p>Have you guys considered branching out into other types of trusts?

So how is this better than opening an account (savings or brokerage) in the child's name with the parent as the custodian?

I think the article might be exaggerating the success of the UK scheme. I am sure it was fairly successful when the government was giving kids money, but now it is just a tax exempt savings scheme (like children pay tax anyway) not sure it has made a difference.

Interesting idea but the branding is terrible and completely out of touch with the times.

How does a trust compare to a UGMA/UTMA?

Does it guarantee dreadlocks?

This should be a great way to fleece unsuspecting unsophisticated investors trying to provide for their children. For instance, front-loading a bunch of fees against the deposited amount, so that if, say, the child dies, you get to keep most of the money.<p><a href="http://www.moneyville.ca/article/1244729--fees-eat-up-90-per-cent-of-parents-refund-on-education-plan-after-baby-s-death" rel="nofollow">http://www.moneyville.ca/article/1244729--fees-eat-up-90-per...</a><p>Be sure to market it to the poor primarily. The marketing tagline can be something like "The wealthy use trust funds to provide for their children - now you can too!"<p>Should be highly successful, even though there are zero benefits to trust funds for 99% of the population. Actually it's probably a net minus for most people, due to the way college financial aid is calculated.<p>I give it an A+ for income potential, C- for utility, F for ethicality.