You can reap many benefits from having a revocable living trust, and Parman & Easterday will help you identify them should you be interested in creating such a trust. We will also help you understand other legal tools you may want to add to your asset protection or estate plan.
Everyone’s family and financial situation is different. The pros and cons of a living trust will be different, too, depending on your situation. If you want personalized legal advice to help you decide if a living trust should be in your future, please give us a call. Read on to learn some of the top benefits you could enjoy if you work with our team to create a trust.
Top Living Trust Benefits
There are many potential benefits to creating a living trust. Some of the primary advantages include:
- Controlling what happens to your assets if you become incapacitated: If you become incapacitated and do not have a plan in place, your loved ones will have to go to court to be able to act on your behalf. The court will appoint a guardian to manage your wealth and make health care decisions for you. The guardianship process takes time, which means your assets will not be managed by anyone until someone is appointed as your guardian. The court doesn’t know your situation and could appoint someone who simply isn’t capable of managing your wealth. If you create a living trust and fund it (re-title your assets into it), you can name the successor trustee you want to step in and begin managing trust assets if something happens to you.
- Maintaining control over assets during your life: When you establish a revocable living trust, you can appoint yourself as the trustee responsible for managing the trust assets. You can terminate the trust or change it at any time. You have all the benefits of having a trust, without losing control of the assets you transfer to it.
- Avoiding probate: One major benefit of making a living trust is that at your death, assets in the living trust pass to your beneficiaries through the trust administration process instead of through probate. Probate takes a long time, is expensive, and can result in details about your assets and your heirs or beneficiaries becoming public. Probate can be stressful for your heirs and beneficiaries, and there’s a chance your last will and testament could be successfully contested and set aside. If it is, you would have lost your right to control who inherits your assets. But when you create a living trust and transfer your assets into it, and then pass the assets on to your beneficiaries through the trust administration process, the chances of someone successfully contesting the trust are slim due to your ongoing involvement with the trust during your life. Furthermore, the trust administration process is cheaper, faster, and takes place outside of court so the downsides of probate are avoided.
There may be other advantages to a trust depending upon your situation, including family relationships and the types of assets you own. If you haven’t already created a trust, now is a good idea to contact an attorney for assistance in deciding whether a living trust is right for you.
Getting Help from Living Trust Attorneys
Parman & Easterday assists client in creating revocable living trusts, irrevocable trusts, and other estate planning tools. We will ensure you have correctly and fully funded your trust and have chosen the right type of trust to meet your needs. We can also assist you in making effective use of other estate planning tools so your assets and family are protected.
To find out more about how our firm can help you with trusts, join us for a free seminar. You can also give us a call today at (405) 843-6100 or contact us online to get personalized help with the creation of your trust.
Since founding Parman & Easterday in 1985, Larry has led over 1,000 free, community-service education programs and helped more than 10,000 Oklahoma families go from putting off their estate plan to getting it done. His goal for every client is the same: to become the person their family calls "the one who took care of everything."
Larry is the author of three books: The Straight Shooter's Guide to Estate Planning; Estate Planning Basics; and Guiding Those Left Behind in Oklahoma. He served as Oklahoma's Secretary of State and Secretary of Commerce, and his firm is the only member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys in the state.
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