Do You Need a Living Trust?

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Living Trusts are documents that can be drafted from legal software, online legal services and attorneys for a varying fee. These legal documents are subject to notarization depending on the law in one's jurisdiction. A living trust verifies executors of a person's will and those executors become property holders until that property is distributed. There are several reasons to consider drafting a living trust and they are as follows:

  • Bypass Probate: A major reason people use living trusts is to avoid the lengthy legal process of having one's property pass through probate court before it reaches one's heirs and/or those listed in the will.
  • Privacy: A living trust can also make private the distribution of some property that would otherwise be publicly available if passed through probate court.
  • Reduce Estate Taxes: In certain instances a living trust can save taxes, specifically estate taxes where the property is owned by the trust and not the heir and/or beneficiary. Nevertheless, the beneficiary can still have access and entitlement privileges to the property in the trust.
  • Compassion: Grieving can be tough enough and on top of that dealing with the funeral process doesn't make things easier. By creating a living trust an individual can reduce the burden of death for loved ones.
  • Simplification: Dealing with probate court can be complicated and daunting. The living trust simplifies the process by identifying trustees who become the executors of the will following the death of the primary trustee.
  • Personalization: By creating a Living trust, one can keep one's property matters within family and/or friends as he or she chooses. This makes managing an estate a more personal and close knit process.
  • Financial Management: A living trust can also designate executors of a will should the situation be that beneficiaries are incapable of being good and/or better off not being trustees.

If thinking about death and what happens to one's property after one is dead, a living trust may or may not be worth consideration depending on one's circumstances. Should one choose to use a living trust, the beneficiaries of the trust receive peace of mind, clarification and practicality. Living trusts are a thoughtful gift that will quite possibly not be forgotten.

Whether one chooses to use a living trust or not is a personal decision that may or may not be necessary. There may be certain personal reasons, family related issues or professional reasons one may want to use a living trust. For complicated trusts, an estate planning attorney should be consulted.

 
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