The Federal tax rate on trusts allows a $300 deduction and then taxes the remainder of income at a flat 32%, as I recall. That limits their usefulness. Trusts are good for transfers of wealth to minor children and, perhaps, to people who can not or will not handle money properly. The other possibility is a charitable trust. I think you can draw a salary to direct the distribution, but you have to give the rest of the money away. A charitable remainder trust allows you to shelter your current income, but, again, gives the rest away at your death.
Really, the only real tax shelter left is whole life insurance. If you set up a trust for which you are neither beneficiary nor trustee and gift it a policy on your life, the proceeds - both face value of the policy and cash value - are tax free to the beneficiaries. The interesting thing is that you can overpay the premiums and let that overage go into the cash value where it is sheltered. I'm not sure if that's true for all whole life policies, but I think it is. You can pay the premiums tax free up to the limit of individual gift exclusion X the number of beneficiaries. Many policies even allow you to select from the available mutual funds and change allocations. The above doesn't reduce your taxes, but does help your loved ones.
Fair warning, I'm neither an insurance salesman nor CPA, so add salt judiciously.
Dino
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