One of the most basic decisions to make when estate planning is whether you should create a Will or a Living Trust. This post gives 5 reasons why an individual would choose to create a Living Trust over a Will. The five reasons are:

1) A will leads you directly into the probate court. A Will must be filed with the probate court within 30 days of your death, and will direct the judge on how your estate is to be distributed. The court then must make sure debts are paid before your property is able to be distributed to your heirs. A living trust avoids probate.

2) Contested wills are (more…)

Provisions can be added to your estate planning documents to prevent unnecessary bureaucracy. For example, the document can provide that if a beneficiary does not survive you by at least sixty days, that beneficiary will not be treated as surviving for the purposes of your estate. This provision alone could save the cost and delay of probating assets through the estate of the deceased beneficiary to get them to the actual recipient.

A survivorship clause also prevents an unintended distribution property. Lets look at an example. Suppose that (more…)

Estate Planning: who needs it? Wills, trusts, and other estate planning documents can be very important for preserving your property and in directing that property where you want it to go. Without a will or trust in place, a person’s assets will be disposed of by state law upon his or her death. This state law, otherwise known as the law of intestacy, oftentimes does not match what the deceased person’s desires were as to whom should get the property or how the property should be handled. Even if current law does match a person’s wishes for distribution of his or her estate, the law is always changing. Unless a person wants to constantly keep up with the changes in the law, it is wise to have a will or trust.

Without a will or trust, a person has no opportunity to (more…)