I just made an appt. with an estate planning attorney to do a trust package. I filled out a will and power of attorney forms from USLegal Forms in the meantime, but I'd feel better if my home was in a trust. Do you have one? How is it set up? Who is your trustee?
Why would you put it into a trust? Help me understand this please?
This is the impression I have (but hey if anyone is actually an estate lawyer, I more than defer): it seems you don't actually need it for a lot of things (it seems you don't even need it for prop 13, which might be the concern for CA housing - I asked this question of my mom who talked to her lawyer about it). It mostly just prevents an estate from going through probate which can delay immediately receiving the inheritance. Avoiding the headache and delay may be a good thing (but not critical unless the inheritee immediately needs the money).
Of course I'm not talking about the kind of money that might hit estate taxes, that is most likely another matter entirely.
Trusts can also be used to restrict what the inheritee does with the money, like how much they can get at at a time etc.. Obviously useful for minors, and young adults. But also a trust was setup for this purpose that I know of: woman with a much older husband, left a trust by her parents, could not access principle itself, only got payments of principle plus interest. Why? The concern was it would all be spent on long term care/healthcare for the husband because he was much older. Sneaky? Haha, I don't know. It protects some money from potential medical bankruptcy I suppose.
Trees don't grow on money
In the state I live in... we can put a beneficiary on the house deed and avoid probate. The cost was $30. We have no need for a trust. I do POD (paid on death) and TOD (transfer on death) for savings and brokerage accounts. These enable me to designate beneficiaries and avoid probate as well. In some instances, a trust is not needed. You may want to read and check further.
My father in law's farms and assets are in a trust.
DH and I are in the process of making a legal asset distribution, and we will likely have a trust which means that upon our death, real estate and other financial assets will be transferred by beneficiary deed into a trust. From there, a trustee will sell the real estate, liquidate the financial instruments, and divide our assets evenly 6 ways.
We are doing this because I see this as the easiest way to split our assets evenly 6 ways. If I leave the house to person A, a bank account to person B, another bank account to person C that is too complicated for me and it's not evenly divided.
Oh and it all avoids probate. Because we don't have minor children or even children at all, I don't care how carefully the trustee works to get maximum price of any assets we have, in fact, if they take the easy way out and sell at rock bottom price, it's fine with me. I want our beneficiaries to be little burdened with our estate. To me that means: get it done quickly, make it easy on the trustee.
We have a will and a trust. We paid an estate attorney to create all the documents. Our house is in a trust. We are each other's trustees and if we both died we, we have parents listed next. Eventually the trustees will be our kids.
I talked to a friend of mine who is a tax attorney and does estate planning. In my case, he advised me to specify that my home sale will go to nursing home expenses for my parents, (if they need it.) If not, I left it to my closest friend. She has struggled as a single mom, and as adults her kids are struggling, too. I totally trust her to handle my affairs and as power of attorney. My parents are getting older and I don't want my house and possessions going to my brothers and sister in law. I explained all this to my parents. My dad was kind of upset. He said that if I'm going to do that he's not going to include me in the inheritance. He wants to keep it in the family. So, I am going to put in the trust that if I die, what I inherit goes to his grandchildren. If I marry or have children later in life, I can change it.
We have wills and trusts. Eventually, it will all be in trust -- largely to avoid probate, etc.
We have a trust and our mountain cabin is in it. We did it to avoid probate. Use NOLO Press' DIY guide and it was pretty simple.
This is what we did too. A trust wasn't necessary. Everything will go to our DDs without probate.Originally Posted by frugal-one
This is what our lawyer advised....
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote