Revocable Living Trust

Planning for the future includes how to handle your finances in regards to what happens to your assets after you pass. While a will can be useful in this regard, such a document is often difficult to change, so a revocable living trust may offer you more choices when it comes to dividing your assets, who to name as beneficiaries and who will protect your finances when you no longer can. A revocable living trust also has several other advantages that can help you feel more confident about the future and how to care for those you love once you pass. 

1. Flexibility 

One of the greatest advantages of a living trust is its flexibility. This feature is valuable because since you create the document, certain circumstances may change. Your marriage might end, you may remarry or an heir might pass before you do. All of these events will probably cause you to change the conditions of the trust, which is typically simpler than making changes to a will. If you decide to begin trust planning while you are young, this type of flexibility can be especially useful. 

2. Your Beneficiaries Can Avoid Probate 

Even the simplest of wills usually require probate, which is a legal process where a local court oversees the dispersion of assets and property. This process can take months to complete, during which time your beneficiaries must wait to claim any inheritance. This is not the case with a living revocable trust, as when you pass, the successor trustee, or the individual you named responsible for overseeing the created trust, can pass assets and other gifts, such as real estate, to the ones named in your trust without the need for lengthy probate hearings. 

3. Enhanced Peace of Mind 

A living revocable trust can help you feel more secure about your assets and other property no matter your life stage. Creating one while you are young and naming a trustee helps guarantee the protection of the trust if you can no longer control it yourself, such as if you suffer an accident and become incapacitated. The trustee does not need to appear in court to take over the responsibility, which streamlines your assets’ protection. 

4. Reduced Court Costs 

If you own real estate in another state and only have a will in place, your beneficiaries may have to attend probate hearings in both your home state and where the property is located. A living revocable trust can reduce or eliminate court costs related to probate in other locations.