Living Trusts

A revocable living trust is a legal document that allows you to make instructions about the management and control of your property while you are alive, and the distribution of your estate after your death. The person or persons who carry out these instructions are called trustees. The people who benefit from your revocable living trust are called the beneficiaries. However these position are not filled by strangers. You will generally serve as the initial trustee. Family members, friends, trusted advisors, and banks or other financial institutions can also be named as trustees, either when you create the trust, or later after you decide that you no longer want the job or after your death or disability. You will be the primary beneficiary of the trust while you are alive.

 

Once your revocable living trust is created, title to your assets should be transferred to it. You will transfer your bank accounts, certificates of deposit, real estate, investments, and even personal property into the name of your revocable living trust. When this process is complete you, as individual, will no longer technically own the property. Your trust will be the legal owner. However, you will retain complete control of trust and the assets in it.

One exception to this is that if you live in Florida, and your spouse is alive, the house that the two of you live in may remain in your and your spouse's name as joint tenants.

 

A revocable living trust as the central document of an estate plan, offers many technical and practical advantages. A well-drafted trust is usually no more difficult to follow than a road map. It can clearly state, in your own words, your reasoning and purposes for doing things a certain way. The trust is very easy to change as needed, which gives you great flexibility. It gives you an excellent method for organizing your affairs, which affords tremendous value to you and to those who will be following the instructions you leave.