Estate Planning and Probate

The Trust Protection Myth: Your Revocable Trust Protects Against Lawsuits WARNING: Many people believe once they set up a Revocable Living Trust and transfer assets into the Trust, those assets are protected from lawsuits. This is absolutely not true. While Trusts commonly provide asset protection for beneficiaries, few Trusts protect assets owned by the person who created the Trust.... No Immediate Asset Protection? Why Should You Create a Revocable Living Trust? Fully funded Revocable Trusts are dynamite tools. Here’s why: 1. You can protect assets passing to your spouse and children. Yes, you can provide protections for loved ones that they can’t yet for themselves. 2. Your Trust includes an incapacity plan, avoiding court interference, maintaining your control, and saving your loved ones time, money, and stress. 3. Your Trust allows your assets to avoid probate, minimizing the time, stress, and cost of settling your final affairs. 4. By avoiding the public probate court process, your Trust keeps all details about who is getting what, a private family matter. What Can You Do to Protect Your Assets? Comprehensive estate planning has a solid foundation of insurance, including homeowners/renters, umbrella, auto, business, life insurances, disability, and the like. Business entities such as the Limited Liability Company are commonly used for asset protection and Domestic Asset Protection Trusts are sometimes used as well. Your Revocable Living Trust creates a powerful value and can be drafted to provide asset protection for your loved ones. To protect yourself, use insurance, business entities, and, perhaps, a Domestic Asset Protection Trust.

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The Pros and Cons of Probate In estate planning circles, the word probate often comes with a starkly negative connotation. Indeed, for many people especially those with larger estates financial planners recommend trying to keep property out of probate whenever possible. That being said, the probate system was ultimately established to protect the property of the deceased and his/her heirs, and in a few cases it may even work to an advantage. Let’s look briefly at the pr...os and cons of going through probate. The Pros For some estates, especially those in which no will was left, the system works to make sure all assets are distributed according to state law. Here are some potential advantages of probating an estate: It provides a trustworthy procedure for redistributing the property of the deceased if no will was left. It validates and enforces the intentions of the deceased if a will exists. It ensures taxes and claimed debts are paid on the estate, so there’s a finality to the deceased person’s affairs, rather than an uncertain, lingering feeling for the beneficiaries. If the deceased was in debt, probate gives only a brief window for creditors to file a claim, which can result in more debt forgiveness. Probate can be advantageous for distributing smaller estates in which estate planning was unaffordable. The Cons While probate is intended to work fairly to facilitate the transfer of property after someone dies, consider bypassing the process for these reasons: Probate is a matter of public record, which means personal family and financial information become public knowledge. There may be considerable costs, including court, attorney, and executor fees, all of which get deducted from the value of the estate. Probate can be time-consuming, holding up distribution of the assets for months, and sometimes, years. Probate can be complicated and stressful for your executor and your beneficiaries. Bottom line: While probate is a default mechanism that ultimately works to enforce fair distribution of even small estates, it can create undue cost and delays. For that reason, many people prefer to use strategies to keep their property out of probate when they die. As a skilled estate planning attorney I can develop a strategy to help you avoid probate and make life easier for the next generation. For more information about your options, contact me today to schedule a consultation.

What happens if I leave an asset out of my Living Trust?

Why properly funding your Living Trust is important.

5 Things to Talk About Estate Planning with Your Family Do you want to pass on your wisdom along with your money through your estate plan? Accomplishing both requires a family meeting to have a conversation about your money, your legacy, and your core principles. Most families have very busy lives and the only time they see one another face-to-face is around the dinner table during a handful of major holidays. The estate planning process is a perfect opportunity to bring ev...Continue reading

Why funding a Living Trust is important.

Which life events that require an immediate estate plan update? Estate planning is the process of developing a strategy for the care and management of your estate if you become incapacitated or upon your death. One commonly known purpose of estate planning is to minimize taxes and costs, including taxes imposed on gifts, estates, generation skipping transfer and probate court costs. However,your plan must also name someone who will make medical and financial decisions for you...Continue reading

How a Living Trust can help your family grieve.

A probate nightmare

How a Living Trust helps avoid Probate