Benefits of Your Revocable Trust
A revocable trust is a vehicle you create during your lifetime. It is revocable in two ways:
First, you can change the document at any time. As the Grantor (the creator) of the trust, you make the rules. You can also change them.
Second, you can put assets into the trust or take them out whenever you want.
You will also be the Trustee of your revocable trust, so you will stay in complete control of all of your assets. As Beneficiary, you will be the only one to benefit from your trust.
A revocable trust is a good idea for several reasons:
-
It is often difficult for an attorney-in-fact to persuade a bank, a transfer agent, or a manager to honor a power of attorney, especially over a long period. If your assets were held in a trust, your successor trustee could manage your assets during your disability.
-
Probate, in which a court oversees the administration of an estate, can be a time consuming and cumbersome process. However, it applies only to assets you own in your own name. Any assets you transfer to your revocable trust during your lifetime will be outside the probate process. This also saves on legal fees to administer your estate
-
Probate is a lawsuit, and lawsuits are public proceedings. All of the documents, including inventories of assets, etc., are matters of public record. In addition, a probated will is a public document, which anyone may look at in the courthouse or, more and more often, read online. A revocable trust agreement is not be a public document. No one will be able to gather any information about assets in the trust or what you did with them.
-
Probate is like a hiccup between your control over your assets during your lifetime and their orderly distribution to your loved ones at your death. By creating and funding a revocable trust, you will provide for a seamless transition between these two phases. No waiting on probate to end for your beneficiaries to receive their inheritance.
