Estate planning

[iris lilies]

I don’t understand your need for a trust. If you have POD and TOD (paid on death or transfer on death) on accounts, your home set up as joint tenants, the same for vehicles (or if your state does not allow… an affidavit to that effect… why do you need a trust? These vehicles will avoid probate, as would any insurance policies.

I would rather have a trust set up for real estate than have heirs sharing joint ownership with me.And in our case we spread assets among many heirs. Joint ownership amoung 10-12 heirs of our real estate results in mayhem.

i don’t know about an “affidavit” to transfer ownership of automobiles. Is that a legal vehicle? That’s what a will is for.

But for anyone who has significant assets held in several ways, getting legal advice from an experienced attorney covering your own state laws is the way to go.

Also, trusts for heirs (created at the same time as ours) gives them protection from, for instance, court judgements taking the money. I can’t say I’m very concerned about that, but that was an outcome of our trust. If I was leaving assets to children I would take that more seriously.

[Tybee]

I was shocked by what I have seen happen and read about trusts on our county probate site, where you can read the filings from everyone's estate--lots of manipulation and sometimes theft, from what I have seen. I would be very careful and have to trust my lawyer and anyone setting up the trust more than I trust anyone now.

Unscrupulous executors and unscrupulous lawyers, along with unscrupulous trust officers, so many ways for an inheritance to be hijacked.

[iris lilies]

I was shocked by what I have seen happen and read about trusts on our county probate site, where you can read the filings from everyone's estate--lots of manipulation and sometimes theft, from what I have seen. I would be very careful and have to trust my lawyer and anyone setting up the trust more than I trust anyone now.

Unscrupulous executors and unscrupulous lawyers, along with unscrupulous trust officers, so many ways for an inheritance to be hijacked.

There are no lawyers involved in carrying out our trust. It is a revokable trust. When we die, assets we have named are immediately owned by the trust. Our named executors carry out disbursing assets.Probably there is a lawyer running the “will” part of our estate but that represents not a lot of money because it covers household goods, etc—things wothout a title.

But sure, executors can be unscrupulous regardless of how one sets up assets upon death. A human has to execute it all. Humans do not always act above board.

I do not care all that much tho because, you know, .i am DEAD. But realistically, I WANT my executors to take every damn penny they are allowed because it is a giant Pita to do this work.At the moment our executors are also heirs but I’m not sure that will continue in our next revision of trust and will.​

[jp1]

I don’t understand your need for a trust. If you have POD and TOD (paid on death or transfer on death) on accounts, your home set up as joint tenants, the same for vehicles (or if your state does not allow… an affidavit to that effect… why do you need a trust? These vehicles will avoid probate, as would any insurance policies.

One example would be if someone and their spouse named each other as beneficiaries on everything, have joint tenancy on their house, etc, and then they both die in a car crash together. What then? With a trust you can have a whole succession of beneficiaries listed. DH if DW dies first and vice versa. Then Dear Sister if both are dead, then dear niece if Dear Sister is also dead, etc.

[jp1]

One example would be if someone and their spouse named each other as beneficiaries on everything, have joint tenancy on their house, etc, and then they both die in a car crash together. What then? With a trust you can have a whole succession of beneficiaries listed. DH if DW dies first and vice versa. Then Dear Sister if both are dead, then dear niece if Dear Sister is also dead, etc.

Also, the succession holds even after one of the spouses pass away. WIthout the trust the surviving spouse now has to deal with revising beneficiaries on all their assets. Not likely a problem if they are 65. More of a problem if they are 92.

[rosarugosa]

My mother put the names of my brother and myself on her investment and banks accounts, and it all worked out just fine, but…it might not have. You can trust your kids but their spouses are not your kids.

One hopes one can trust one's kids. That isn't always the case, unfortunately.

[frugal-one]

One example would be if someone and their spouse named each other as beneficiaries on everything, have joint tenancy on their house, etc, and then they both die in a car crash together. What then? With a trust you can have a whole succession of beneficiaries listed. DH if DW dies first and vice versa. Then Dear Sister if both are dead, then dear niece if Dear Sister is also dead, etc.

There is a thing called stirpes whereby everything follows a succession of beneficiaries. The case here is we have only one child so everything goes to him. I think if you have a number of beneficiaries a trust is best but otherwise not needed. I also made up an estate plan book listing what would need to be changed in case of death of one of us. Surprisingly, the list is not long since we consolidated investments and minimized our lifestyle. YLMV

[jp1]

Another thing to do is make sure the be eficiaries know what lawyer prepared the estate documents (if you used one of course). Dad had told my sister and I the guy’s name a few times, always mentioning that his office was upstairs from “A Show of hands” a nail salon. When she was dealing with the estate she needed to talk to him about something and texted me ‘guess where I am?’ with a picture of the sign for the nail salon. I had a much needed laugh at that.

[Tybee]

My dad's lawyer was quite old, as was my dad, and retired right at the start of everything, dumping us with a stranger who was not a good fit.
They say pick a lawyer and doctor at least 20 years younger than you are.

[iris lilies]

My dad's lawyer was quite old, as was my dad, and retired right at the start of everything, dumping us with a stranger who was not a good fit.
They say pick a lawyer and doctor at least 20 years younger than you are.

That’s a good tip.