It is important to understand the facts when you are planning your estate, because there are certain misconceptions that can circulate. One of these misconceptions is the notion that you lose direct personal control of assets that you place into any type of trust.
This is not the case when it comes to revocable living trusts. Let’s look at the details.
Ongoing Control
When you create a revocable living trust, you are referred to as the grantor of the trust. The name of the trust says a great deal: it is revocable. The grantor of the trust can revoke it at any time. If you were to revoke or rescind the trust, it would no longer exist, and the assets that were conveyed into the trust would once again become your direct personal property.
You create the trust because you want to facilitate future asset transfers to your loved ones, so you probably will not want to revoke it. Even while the living trust is intact, you control everything, because you can act as the trustee and the beneficiary while you are alive and well. You decide how the trust’s assets will be utilized, and you can receive monetary distributions from the trust as you see fit.
Efficient Asset Transfers
When you create the trust agreement you name a successor trustee and a successor beneficiary, and you leave behind instructions that the successor trustee must follow after you die.
After you pass away, the successor trustee will distribute the trust’s assets to the successor beneficiary or beneficiaries in accordance with your wishes as stated in the trust agreement. These distributions would take place in a timely and efficient manner, outside of the legal process of probate.
If you use a last will to facilitate asset transfers, the will must be admitted to probate. Under these circumstances, the heirs to the estate would not receive their inheritances until after the estate was probated and closed by the court.
The process of probate can take a considerable amount of time. There are also expenses that present themselves during probate, and probate costs can shave down the value of the estate that is being passed on to your loved ones.
Download Our Living Trust Report
We have provided a basic overview in this post, but we have a more comprehensive resource that is available to you if you would like to learn more about revocable living trusts.
Our firm has prepared a special report that is devoted to revocable living trusts. This report is being offered free of charge, and you can obtain access through this website.
To get your copy of this informative special report, click this link and follow the simple instructions: Grand Forks, ND Living Trust Report.
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