Using a Revocable Trust in Your Estate Plan
The estate planning attorney has served clients for years and knows the common estate planning problems people face. While some may be more concerned about retirement, avoiding probate and estate taxes so as to leave optimum funds for their surviving loved ones, others may be more concerned with protecting their assets when they grow old and feeble, and ensuring that their assets pass on to their heirs in the simplest and smoothest process possible. Whatever your case may be, the estate attorney is highly knowledgeable in estate matters and knows just what tactics and tools to use in giving you your heart desires concerning your assets. One of these very important estate planning tools is a revocable living trust.
The Revocable Living Trust
A revocable living trust is most commonly called a revocable trust or a living trust. This document gives you liberty to transfer assets after death and even during your lifetime much quicker and easier than a will does. When you create a living trust and fund it with assets, you name a trustee (you can name yourself as your trustee but must also name a successor trustee) who would handle those assets in the trust and pass them on to your beneficiaries when you die, or even while you yet live.
There are many reasons why the estate planning attorney may suggest using a revocable living trust in your estate plan because of the many benefits which it offers.
Benefits of Using a Revocable Trust in Your Estate Plan
1. Revocable trust avoids probate
This is one of the most notable reasons why revocable trusts are preferred over wills. Once you create a revocable trust, you can transfer all your valuable possessions, bank accounts and real estate into the trust. Once transferred, they take up the name of the trust and hence, those assets will not go through the complex and expensive process of probate. This will also make your asset transfer private, quick and hitch-free. On the other hand, assets distributed with wills will go through probate since such assets are in your name.
2. Offers flexibility
Revocable living trusts are very flexible. As the name suggests, this type of trust is revocable, that is, can be cancelled or have its terms changed at anytime as the Grantor (creator of the trust) so desires. This is as opposed to irrevocable trusts. Many things can make you decide to alter the terms of your trust or revoke it. You might acquire a new property which you want to include in the trust; you could also need to make use of the funds which you’ve already transferred into the trust, hence you would need to remove those funds from the trust. You may even have a change of heart concerning your beneficiaries in the future. So if you feel you still have a lifetime ahead of you in which you can experience significant changes in your estate, create a revocable living trust instead of an irrevocable trust.
3. Gives you asset protection before death
With a revocable living trust, you do not have to worry about your assets when incapacitation hits. Your trustee automatically takes over your estate affairs without having to go through Guardianship hearing or Conservatorship, and he is bound by law to act in your best interests. In the terms of your living trust, you can also lay down instructions on how your minors should be provided for with your assets.
4. Offers cost savings
Although revocable living trusts are more expensive to set up than wills or normal irrevocable trusts, you would be rescued from the headaches, time and costs of probate in the long run. When you contest a provision, creating a revocable living trust can even save more time and money.
5. Receives FDIC protection
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) protects any bank account having up to $250,000, but as a Grantor of a revocable living trust, you have financial protection up to $1,250,000.
Why do I need to hire an Estate Planning Attorney near me 10011?
As have been seen, there are many reasons why you should consider creating a revocable living trust. However, this trust doesn’t give you any estate tax advantage as an irrevocable trust does, because the assets in the living trust are still considered to be yours. There are upsides and downsides to trusts and wills, and getting an estate planning lawyer near you should be your next critical step in discerning the best way to go about your estate plan. Get the best personalized legal services today. If you’re living anywhere within and around area code 10011, contact the estate attorney NYC.
