One of the key goals of many people as they create their estate plan is to avoid having their estate go through a long, complicated probate process after they’re gone. This can be time-consuming and costly for loved ones. It can also delay inheritances being passed on. Further, anyone who wants to may be able to get information on your estate.
One of the most popular estate planning tools for minimizing probate is a revocable living trust. Anything that’s placed in this kind of trust generally skips probate and goes directly to the designated beneficiaries.
People often hear the word “trust,” and assume that it’s only for very wealthy people, that it’s difficult to establish and maintain or that they can’t touch the assets once they’re in the trust. In fact, anyone who owns a home can likely benefit from a revocable living trust – although you can place other assets in it as well. Further, if you have professional estate planning guidance, setting up a revocable living trust is easy, and you can add and remove assets over the years as necessary by simply putting them in the trust name.
When you establish the trust, you’ll likely name yourself as the trustee. That means you have full control over the assets while you’re alive and well. You’ll name a successor trustee to assume that role when you die. At that point, the trust becomes irrevocable, so that successor trustee can’t do anything with the assets other than what you’ve designated.
What assets are typically placed in a revocable living trust?
Aside from your home and other real estate, you can place accounts in your trust by simply naming the trust as the owner of the account. You can still make deposits and withdrawals as you normally would.
If you have other high-value assets like antiques, jewelry and art that don’t have ownership documents, you can include them in your trust by listing them in a separate document that will be part of your trust documentation. Again, it’s important to have professional estate planning guidance to help ensure that it’s done correctly.
There are other ways to help your assets skip probate. For example, you can set up payable-on-death (POD), transfer-on-death (TOD), joint tenants with right of survivorship and other designations on certain assets. With sound legal guidance, you can make the decisions that are best for you and your loved ones.
