You’re busy in your day-to-day life. You’ve got to get to work and deal with its stressors, take your kids to school and help them with their homework, and perhaps even help care for aging parents. Getting wrapped up in all of these activities can leave you feeling stressed and a bit overwhelmed, and it can make time fly.
This is why a lot of people end up neglecting their estate plan. They think that creating the right estate plan will take a lot of time and effort, and it’s usually hard for them to overcome the mental hurdle of dealing with their own mortality.
As challenging as all of that can be, there are ways that you may be able to create an effective estate plan in an efficient fashion. One way is to use a living trust with a corresponding pour-over will.
What is a living trust?
A living trust is a trust that you create while you’re still alive. By transferring assets to the trust, you transfer ownership of those assets to the trust. That might sound daunting, but keep in mind that you still get to enjoy the assets that have been moved into the trust as if you still own them.
By transferring assets to the trust, you ensure that they’ll bypass the probate process, which can save your estate and your family time, money, and heartache. You can also ensure that the assets in the trust will be passed down to your named beneficiaries when the time comes. You can even specify who will serve as trustee, which is the individual who will be in charge of managing the trust assets once you’re gone and ensuring that asset distribution is in accordance with your wishes.
You can make your living trust revocable or irrevocable, too. Depending on which type you choose, you may see certain benefits. If you’d like to learn more about the benefits of each, then you might want to discuss that point with your estate planning attorney.
How can a pour-over will help?
A lot of people are turned off by the idea of having to constantly update their estate plan. It takes time, and it can be easy to forget since you’re not dealing with it every day. But that’s where a pour-over will may prove beneficial. This legal document essentially specifies that you have a living will and that any assets that are outside of the trust at the time of your death were meant to be transferred to the trust.
This, in turn, will effectively shift those assets over to your trust. This will ensure that they’ll be handled in accordance with the terms of your trust, and it can give you peace of mind that your assets will be handled how you want even if you forget to directly address all of them in your estate plan.
Do you want to learn more about your estate planning options?
There are a lot of different ways to approach your estate plan. By learning about your options, you can ensure that you’re creating a plan that best protects your assets, your loved ones, and your vision of the future.
However, to learn about your options, you need to be proactive in reaching out for assistance. An attorney who has experience handling these matters might be able to give you the guidance that you need to make fully informed decisions.
Therefore, if you’d like to learn more about how a legal team can help advise you in these matters, then now may be the time for you to reach out to an estate planning attorney that you think will give you the representation that you need.
