How To Make The Most Of Your Revocable Trust

Many people create their estate plans with the goal of helping their loved ones avoid the probate process after they pass away. Revocable trusts are one way to do this but many people do not know how to make the most use of these documents. Simply having a revocable trust will not provide you or your family the intended benefits if it is not used correctly. Our Daytona Beach trusts lawyer outlines some of the best ways to make the most of these legal documents so you and your family are protected.

Fund the Trust 

One of the biggest mistakes people make is that they establish a trust but they fail to fund it with property. Funding a revocable trust requires you to retitle property from your name into the name of the trust. When creating a trust, you can generally name it anything you want such as “The Smith Family Trust” or something more creative. You must retitle any property you wish to place into the trust, including stocks, bonds, real property, and bank accounts. If you fail to properly fund the trust, neither you or your family can realize the benefits it would otherwise offer.

Include Asset Protection 

During your lifetime, the assets in a revocable trust are not protected from creditors, nursing homes, and lawsuits. Upon your death, a revocable trust will likely become irrevocable, providing the asset protection your family may need. However, this can only be achieved if the trust is drafted properly. If a trust is not executed properly, it will not hold asset protection benefits. Another way to include asset protection in a trust is to include a spendthrift clause. This ensures that the beneficiary of the trust will not waste their inheritance but instead, will only receive smaller installments of their inheritance at a time.

Plan for Children from Previous Marriages 

A revocable living trust can also offer important protections if you are in a second marriage but have children from a previous relationship. A properly established trust can provide settlors with the certainty they need to know that they can place property in a trust for children from previous relationships and that their surviving spouse will not be able to change the terms, essentially disinheriting the children from the previous relationship. By simply designating the child or children as beneficiaries, you can ensure that they will automatically receive the property within the trust after you pass away and they will not have to go through probate to obtain it.

Call Our Trusts Lawyer in Daytona Beach Today 

Revocable trusts are great estate planning tools that can offer you and your family many benefits. These can only be realized, though, if they are executed properly. At Bundza & Rodriguez, our Daytona Beach trusts lawyer can advise on the type of trust right for you and your loved ones and ensure it, and your other estate planning documents, are drafted properly. Call us today at 386-252-5170 or contact us online to request a consultation with one of our experienced attorneys and to learn more about how we can help.

Source:

leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0700-0799/0736/0736.html