By Lorie Burch, Owner & Founding Attorney of Burch Law
Hi, Lorie Burch here, your go to Wills & trusts attorney to discuss whether YOU need a living trust.
First what is a revocable living trust? In short, it’s a legal document like a Will that distributes your assets and property upon death and appoints who will be in charge of that fun task. The difference is assets in a trust do not have to go through probate court whereas with a Will, your executor going to court!
Now probate court doesn’t have to be the worst thing in the world, but many want to speed things up by avoiding the time and expense of probate, which can take several months and cost around $2,000 even with a Will.
Living trusts also protect your privacy as opposed to a Will does become a public record and, it’s argued, easier to challenge, where a living trust is a private and is not filed in court.
But if you’re going to save time and money “IN THE END” what does that mean now? It means more time and money NOW! Living trusts do cost more to set up than a Will, but it’s less than a probate process. And you have more work to do: you’ve got to maintain real estate in the trust, change bank accounts to your trust, keep beneficiaries of life insurance, retirement, and investments directed to the trust, and possibly even car titles changed into the trust.
But if you do it right, you will save a ton of time and money when your family and loved ones are grieving the loss of someone important to them: YOU!
Look, we know this is overwhelming and confusing, you’ve got questions, reach out to us to help find the answers.
And remember: if you don’t have a Will, the state of Texas has one for you!
