Living trust

A living trust is set up to avoid probate and protect the family from probate. When a tax payer dies, all of his assets are frozen and go to probate unless there is a living trust. A will is not enough to avoid probate. A will takes the family of the deceased automatically to probate. A living trust can be revocable living trust or irrevocable living trust.

What is wrong with probate? and why is a living trust necessary?

Probate is slow and expensive. During probate, the assets of the deceased are frozen. That means the family cannot sell anything or do anything with the assets and properties. Moreover, probate records are filed at the court house. Anyone can go to the court house and see the probate records. They can get all the information about which beneficiaries got what and what their addresses are. To protect your loved ones' private, you need to avoid probate. The way to avoid probate is to have a living trust.

Creating a living trust

In order to avoid probate, two conditions must be met as follows:

1. a living trust must be created
2. the living trust must be funded

A tax payer creates a living trust by filling out a form. Alternatively, the tax payer can pay a lawyer a lot of money to fill out the form for him or her. In the past, creating a living trust is more complicated and a service of a lawyer or tax attorney is usually advisable. Nowadays, the tax laws are simpler for anyone to set up a living trust. A tax payer can fill out the exact same form a tax attorney can fill out to create a living trust. If a tax attorney is hired for creating a living trust, it is usually the tax attorney 's secretary who fill out the form anyway. Nowadays, there are many tax help software and living trust software. All a tax payer has to do to create a living trust is fill in the blanks using a living trust software.