Living trusts provide privacy and flexibility. It could be an important aspect of your estate plan. Consider all the available options made available to help you make an informed choice.
Understanding the benefits of a living trust
Living trusts would offer a wide variety of benefits. As a result, they have become immensely popular with the people. Living trusts enable your estate to avoid probate. A San Antonio Estate Planning Lawyer would use it to avoid the costs associated with having a will probated. However, you would be required to avoid delay associated with probate. Rest assured that it would take months for the last will to be probated. However, when you create a living trust, the assets in the trust could be distributed soon after your death.
You could choose to delay the distribution of later dates. Most people would set distributions for the big birthdays of their beneficiaries. Yet another benefit of a living trust would be its irrevocability aspect. It enables you to change it anytime. You could even decide to dissolve the trust if you choose to do so. Due to a living trust being private and not probated, it cannot become a public record.
Understanding the drawbacks of a living trust
Living trusts cannot include all your assets, as some might not be eligible for ownership by the trust. The other problem with a living trust would be that it could only control the assets that have been transferred into it. Therefore, if you forget to change the ownership of something inclusive of a bank account, the trust would not cover it.
For those relying solely on the trust for your estate planning, the assets left out of your trust would pass through the intestacy laws of the state. The cost of living trust could be a drawback for you. It requires an upfront payment for preparing the document and ensuring appropriate management of the trust. Rest assured that these costs might be more than the ones involved in drawing a will and probating a small estate.
What is the difference between a will and a living trust?
A living trust would provide for ownership and management of the assets specifically placed into it. A trust has been specifically designed to function during your life and after your death.
On the other hand, the will would provide for the distribution of your assets upon your death. It would provide instructions for what would be the result of your assets when you die.
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