A living trust is an estate planning tool that can help you manage your assets during your lifetime and ensure that they are distributed according to your wishes after you pass away. A living trust is a legal document that creates a trust during your lifetime and specifies how your assets will be managed and distributed. In this blog post, we’ll discuss the top 3 benefits of creating a living trust.
Avoiding Probate
One of the biggest benefits of creating a living trust is that it can help you avoid probate. Probate is the court-supervised process of distributing a person’s assets after their death. It can be time-consuming, expensive, and often requires court intervention. With a living trust, your assets are held in the trust, and you can designate a successor trustee to manage and distribute the assets after your death. This can help avoid the probate process and ensure that your assets are distributed according to your wishes.
Asset Management for Minor Children
A key aspect of having a living trust is that it can be set up to manage your assets for the benefit of your minor children, without the cost and expense of setting up a conservatorship through a court. With a living trust in place, you can dictate not only who will manage your assets for the benefit of your children, but also how the assets will be distributed and when.
Maintaining Privacy
Another benefit of a living trust is that it can help maintain your privacy. When you create a will, it becomes a public record when it goes through probate. This means that anyone can access it and see how your assets were distributed. With a living trust, the trust document is not part of the public record, so your wishes and the distribution of your assets can remain private.
Providing for Incapacity
A living trust can also provide for your incapacity. If you become incapacitated and are unable to manage your assets, your successor trustee can step in and manage them for you. This can help ensure that your bills are paid and your assets are managed while you are unable to do so.
Creating a Living Trust
Creating a living trust involves several steps, including:
- Identifying Your Goals: Determine what you want to accomplish with your living trust, and what assets you want to include.
- Naming a Trustee: Choose a trustee to manage the trust and distribute the assets after your death.
- Funding the Trust: Transfer assets into the trust, including real estate, financial accounts, and personal property.
- Updating Beneficiary Designations: Update beneficiary designations on life insurance policies, retirement accounts, and other assets to ensure they are aligned with the trust.
Conclusion
Creating a living trust can provide many benefits, including avoiding probate, maintaining privacy, and providing for incapacity. TruWill can help you create a customized, attorney approved, living trust that reflects your unique needs and priorities in under twenty minutes and at ¼ the cost of using an estate planning attorney. With a living trust in place, you can ensure that your assets are managed and distributed according to your wishes, and provide peace of mind for you and your loved ones.
