Living Trust Estate Plan

A revo­ca­ble Living Trust is a legal enti­ty that is a ‘per­son’ in the eyes of the law. It allows you to trans­fer the own­er­ship of your prop­er­ty (home, bank accounts, etc.) from your name as an indi­vid­ual to an enti­ty called a “Trust” which you con­trol as the “Trustee”. You can trans­fer assets or change the pro­vi­sions at your dis­cre­tion. A Living Trust is designed to avoid Probate or Conservatorship, and to pass assets down to your fam­i­ly or loved ones with­out the inter­fer­ence of outsiders.

How it works

When you set up an Estate Plan with a Living Trust as its legal cen­ter­piece, you are both the Trustor (the per­son who estab­lished it) and its orig­i­nal Trustee and Beneficiary (the per­son who gets the ben­e­fits). Successor Trustees can lat­er take your place instant­ly if need­ed, to see that your instruc­tions are car­ried out.. Included in your fam­i­ly’s Living Trust Estate Plan are oth­er doc­u­ments that will also work for you to avoid the need for court super­vi­sion, sav­ing your fam­i­ly unnec­es­sary costs, delays and lack of privacy.

Included in your Estate Plan

• Administrative Instructions 
• Document Signature Instructions
• Living Trust Agreement
• Pour-Over Wills
• Community Property Agreement 
• Durable Power-of-Attorney for Health Care
• Directive to Physicians Regarding Use of Artificial Life Support
• Successor Trustees Instructions
• Final Instruction Checklist
• Funding Your Trust 

POWER OF ATTORNEY FOR HEALTH CARE & PHYSICIAN’S DIRECTIVE

In the event of your dis­abil­i­ty, you des­ig­nate a per­son with the Power of Attorney, who will make any med­ical deci­sions nec­es­sary for your ben­e­fit and your care. In addi­tion, the Physician’s Directive, (also known as the “Living Will”) enables you to accept or decline arti­fi­cial life sup­port in advance of any med­ical emergency.

POUR-OVER WILL

The Pour-Over Will is pre­pared in the Estate Plan for your pro­tec­tion. We include it in case you are unable to move some assets into the Living Trust pri­or to death. It acts as a legal “safe­ty net” for those assets left out of the Trust. It names your execu­tor and how assets are to be dis­trib­uted. If you have chil­dren who are minors, the Pour-Over Will des­ig­nates the legal guardian you choose to raise your chil­dren, rather than hav­ing a court appoint­ed person.

SUCCESSOR TRUSTEES

Your Successor Trustee (back-up trustee) is entrust­ed with cer­tain legal pow­ers, duties and respon­si­bil­i­ties that must be exer­cised with care, pru­dence and com­mon sense. Most peo­ple choose a fam­i­ly mem­ber or trust­ed friend as their Successor Trustee. Some might select a cor­po­rate trustee (bank or trust com­pa­ny). Whomever you choose, as a pro­fes­sion­al cour­tesy to you, we will con­duct a free trustee meet­ing to brief your trustee(s) on what is expect­ed of them and to answer any ques­tions they may have regard­ing their role as Successor Trustees.

FINAL INSTRUCTIONS CHECKLIST

We pro­vide a detailed check­list that will help your Successor Trustee take the nec­es­sary actions to pro­tect your inter­ests in a time of cri­sis. However, if need­ed, our staff can help your trustees resolve any prob­lems they may face in com­plet­ing their duties and pro­tect­ing your inter­ests and those of your heirs.

How can I learn more?

Set up a Private Consultation with an Attorney.

How do we get started?

Take a few min­utes to deter­mine which of your assets you can least afford to lose. Then after a pri­vate con­sul­ta­tion ask us to pre­pare a LIVING TRUST ESTATE PLAN. We will gath­er the infor­ma­tion on what you want done, have the legal doc­u­ments pre­pared and it will be ready for your sig­na­ture. We will show you how to inte­grate it with the rest of your Business Planning, Financial Planning and Asset Protection. Contact us.