This article high lights the differences between an estate plan based on a Will or one based on a Revocable Living Trust. McDowall Cotter, APC is a law firm located in the San Francisco Bay Area, \u00a0California.<\/p>\n
When a couple with young children approach estate planning for the first time, the first hurdle in the planning process is to determine what type of estate plan to use:\u00a0 one that is based on a Will or one that is based on a Revocable Living Trust.\u00a0 As the centerpiece of the estate plan, the Will or the Revocable Living Trust will be responsible for directing the distribution of a decedent\u2019s assets at the time of his or her death.<\/p>\n
One of the important differences between a Will and a Revocable Living Trust is the fact that a Will does not speak until one dies.\u00a0 In other words, even though a person prepares and signs a Will today, it does not come into effect until that person dies.\u00a0 At that time, the person or company identified as the \u2018Executor\u2019 distributes the property pursuant to the instructions of the Will.<\/p>\n
A Revocable Living Trust, on the other hand, is as the name implies; a living document that is up and running on the date you sign it.\u00a0 In this way, a Revocable Living Trust can work for the Trustmaker in the event of incapacity<\/em> (the term \u2018Trustmaker\u2019 <\/em>refers to the person or persons establishing the trust, typically the husband and wife in the case of a family with young children).\u00a0 <\/em>A Will cannot do this because it does not speak until there is a death.<\/p>\n At death, a Will and Revocable Living Trust have the same basic goal.\u00a0 That goal is to distribute assets pursuant to the wishes of the decedent.\u00a0 However, the process of distribution is quite different.\u00a0 Assets passing by a Will must necessarily pass through Probate.\u00a0 Probate has its origins in the middle ages of England.\u00a0\u00a0 Most authorities agree that probate is a relatively expensive and time consuming process that is best avoided in most cases.\u00a0 In California, an estate with assets having a value of greater than $100,000 must proceed through the formal probate process if the assets are\u00a0 passing by Will.<\/p>\n On the other hand, a Revocable Living Trust names a Successor Trustee to distribute assets at death.\u00a0 The Successor Trustee has a role similar to that of an Executor of a Will:\u00a0 distribute assets pursuant to the wishes of the decedent.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Because the assets pass through the mechanism of the Revocable Living Trust to a Successor Trustee and then to the beneficiaries of the Revocable Living Trust, Probate is avoided with the use of a Revocable Living Trust.<\/p>\n So which type of estate plan is best for you?\u00a0\u00a0 Well, this attorney\u2019s answer is, \u201cIt depends.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Some of the arguments in favor of a Revocable Living Trust are that a trust provides for incapacity planning and probate avoidance and also allows for more efficient estate tax planning.\u00a0 On the other hand, a Revocable Living Trust needs to be \u2018funded\u2019 with appropriate assets.\u00a0 That is, appropriate assets must be retitled in the name of the Trustee of the Revocable Living Trust.\u00a0 There is more counseling and greater options available through Revocable Living Trust based planning. All of this makes Revocable Living Trust planning more expensive.<\/p>\n Things to consider when deciding whether to proceed with a will or trust based plan include the following:<\/p>\n If your answer to any of the above questions is yes, then you may want to consider a \u2018stop-gap\u2019 type estate plan that would provide a you with a simple, Will based plan that would be relatively inexpensive to set up.\u00a0 On the other hand, if your family situation includes at least one child or you have accumulated a fair amount of assets and\/or a home, then an estate plan which is based on a Revocable Living Trust may be appropriate for you so long as you are not planning to relocate out of the state in the next couple of years.<\/p>\n Whether you proceed with an estate plan with is based on a Revocable Living Trust or a Will, you will want to be sure your estate plan provides for your children.<\/p>\n If you want\u00a0to learn\u00a0more about a Revocable Living Trust or Will contact us at:<\/p>\n 2070 Pioneer Court McDowall Cotter<\/a>\u00a0provides comprehensive legal services in three areas of practice: civil litigation; business; and wealth preservation. To learn more visit us at\u00a0https:\/\/mcdlawyers.net<\/a>. We are a San Mateo based law firm and for more than 50 years, McDowall Cotter’s chief objective has been to deliver exemplary legal services that are personalized, effective and efficient.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0A Will or a Trust, that is the Question This article high lights the differences between an estate plan based on a Will or one based on a Revocable Living […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-916","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcdlawyers.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcdlawyers.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcdlawyers.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcdlawyers.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcdlawyers.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mcdlawyers.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/916\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcdlawyers.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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