What is a Revocable Living Trust?

A revocable living trust is a common method of avoiding the probate of one’s assets after death.  By transferring assets to a trust, a grantor, or the person who has created the trust, can ensure that his or her assets are not subject to the probate process.  Since the trust document lives beyond the death of the grantor, then the assets do not go through probate. 

In particular, a revocable living trust allows a grantor to create a trust, but still to make any desired changes during the grantor’s lifetime.  Therefore, if a grantor decides to change the beneficiaries of his trust due to changes in his or her life or family composition, a revocable living trust permits the grantor to freely do so.  Likewise, if the grantor chooses to revoke the trust altogether, or make it completely legally void and ineffective, the grantor is free to do so at any time during his or her lifetime.

Executing Revocable Living Trusts

Revocable living trusts are typically executed in conjunction with the execution of the grantor’s will.  Typically, a grantor would use a pour over will to accompany a revocable living trust; the will would specifically provide that all assets not already transferred to the revocable living trust prior to the death of the grantor would automatically transfer to the revocable living trust upon the grantor’s death.  The will helps ensure that any of the grantor’s assets or property that is unintentionally left outside of the trust will be added to the trust upon death, which saves the time and expense of the probate of the assets that were left outside of the trust.

Help with a Revocable Living Trust

The specific terms of your trust document should be tailored to meet your stated goals and wishes.  An estate planning attorney will be able to advise you as to all possible options in terms of distributing your assets as you wish.  By consulting an estate planning attorney, you can avoid leaving your beneficiaries with unresolved legal issues that will cost them time and money to remedy.