“Maximizing Your Estate Planning: What Assets to Put in a Revocable Living Trust”

A revocable living trust is a useful tool for protecting assets during your lifetime and ensuring an easy transfer of assets after your death. Probate can be a lengthy and costly process, making a living trust a beneficial option for comprehensive estate planning. The main advantage of a trust is to avoid probate, providing peace of mind that assets will be passed on as desired without a lengthy legal process. However, setting up a trust can be initially costly.

Assets that can be placed in a trust include real estate, financial accounts, life insurance, annuities, personal property, business interests, mineral rights, collectible vehicles, and valuable personal items. Funding a trust may require changing ownership titles or certificates. Retirement accounts, health savings accounts, actively used financial accounts, and vehicles typically should not be placed in a trust. Other types of trusts, such as subtrusts, funeral trusts, children’s trusts, generation-skipping trusts, and irrevocable trusts, can serve specific purposes in estate planning.

Various clauses can be added to a trust document, such as a no-contest clause, mental competency clause, distributions to minors clause, and distributions to disabled persons clause, to clarify how assets are to be handled under specific circumstances. It is important to consult a tax preparer or legal adviser when creating a trust to ensure compliance with state laws and to maximize the benefits of the trust. Overall, a living trust can be a valuable tool in protecting and distributing assets according to your wishes.