OldShooter
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Certainly the trustee will be largely hamstrung by the nature of the asset, but strictly speaking the trust document can be written to give the trustee maximum flexibility within fiduciary constraints, including sale or conversion of assets.... And as the link points out, an irrevocable trust can't adapt to changes in tax laws or conditions. It's up to the OP to determine if it fits their needs/wants, but I'd think very, very long and hard before giving up that flexibility. ...
Yes. Something that has gotten a bit lost in this discussion is that the OP really has two completely separate decisions; (1) whether to do an ILIT and, if yes, (2) how to fund it.... An ILIT should be holding whole life or term insurance instead.
Buying a Variable Universal Life Insurance Policy (for any reason) is clearly an unpopular idea with the majority of contributors to this thread. The ILIT idea seems to be a little fuzzier because the OP's estate tax vulnerability is unknown. FWIW, barring a radical revision, we will never hit the Federal number but our state begins grabbing money at a far lower point. For the state, we basically play the role of victim.