If you take the right steps, you can secure your own financial future as you simultaneously craft a suitable legacy to leave behind to your loved ones. There are various different legal devices that you can use to facilitate future asset transfers. One of them is the revocable living trust, and these trusts are very useful for a wide range of people.
Value of Revocable Living Trusts
Efficiency is an important factor to consider any time you are trying to make a decision. Revocable living trusts facilitate efficient asset transfers, because the transfers would not be subject to the probate process.
People who do not have a trust would typically utilize a last will as a vehicle of asset transfer. If you were to you use a will to state your final wishes, the executor or personal representative would be forced to admit the will to probate. The heirs would not receive their inheritances until the estate was closed by the probate court.
Probate is time-consuming, and this can present problems for some inheritors. In most areas, it takes close to a year for an estate to pass through probate, even if there are no complications.
If there are difficulties, the process can take considerably longer.
In addition to the time consumption, there are also a number of expenses that accumulate during probate. These expenses can ultimately consume a good bit of money that would have otherwise gone to the surviving family members.
Another advantage that you gain when you create a revocable living trust is the ability to prepare for possible incapacity. When you create the trust, you will typically act as the trustee initially, but you name a successor trustee to administer the trust after your passing.
The successor trustee could also be empowered to manage the trust in the event of your incapacitation.
Funding a Living Trust
Funding a living trust is the act of conveying assets into the trust. To fund a trust, you would typically list assets that you are conveying into the trust in the trust declaration. An additional document called a schedule could be used to list these assets, and it would also be possible to use the trust agreement to transfer the property to the trustee who is administering the trust.
You do have to change the ownership documents, naming the trust as the new owner of the property that you are conveying into it.
Free Report on Living Trusts
If you want to obtain additional information about living trusts, we have a valuable resource that you can access through this website.
Our firm has prepared a free special report on revocable living trusts. To view the report, click this link and follow the simple instructions: San Jose CA Living Trusts.
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