Now, a Revocable Living Trust is a contract that you write with yourself about how your property will be managed both during your lifetime, if you become incapacitated and when you pass away. Now, there are a lot of advantages of a Revocable Trust such as avoiding probate, the cost, the public nature of it and so on. There are some disadvantages as well.

The first disadvantage is that it’s a complex lease legal documentand so this is a tool that you use to avoid probate and there is a lot that goes into it.

The second thing about a trust and the second disadvantage is that you have to do certain thingsto your property after you create the trust. So you have to transfer your real estate to the trust, for example, and you have to transfer your financial and investment accounts to the trust.

The third disadvantage of a Revocable Trust is that typically you need to hire a lawyer to both prepare it and then to update it in the future.

Quick Question Corner is a video segment where we answer common questions about estate planning and elder law. If you have similar questions, leave them in the comment section and we can feature them in one of our videos in the future.

This is a bit of a complex question. If you create a trust during your lifetime and it holds property that you used to own, and that property generates income, then you will have to pay taxes on the income on your personal income tax. In this case, the trust does not pay tax on its own.

If, on the other hand, a trust is irrevocable, meaning you can’t change it, and so this happens when the person who created the trust passes away, then the trust will have to pay taxes on the income that is generated by the trust assets. If you have more questions about taxable income for a trust, please reach out and contact us.

Quick Question Corner is a video segment where we answer common questions about estate planning and elder law. If you have similar questions, leave them in the comment section and we can feature them in one of our videos in the future.

We recommend that anytime there’s a major life change, you review and possibly update your estate plan. The major life changes are birth in the family, death in the family, marriage, divorce or bankruptcy.

In the absence of one of these majorlife changes, we recommend that you sit down with an estate planning attorney every three years. Now, there are exceptions to this rule.

If you are a young parent and have young children, your life is going through a lot of dynamic changes. In that case, we recommend that you sit down once every year.

If you are elderly and perhaps looking to transition to an assisted living facility or another community, we also recommend that you sit down once a year.

So for most people, it’s every three years, and it’s also when a major life change happens. For certain groups of people, it’s every year.

Quick Question Corner is a video segment where we answer common questions about estate planning and elder law. If you have similar questions, leave them in the comment section and we can feature them in one of our videos in the future.

The answer is yes. In most instances, an additional trustee can be added to an existing trust. Now, this will be governed by the trust language of the trust document itself.

Usually the trustee is empowered to delegate authority to a co-trustee. If you’re the person who created the trust, you could always amend the trust and add an additional trustee to the trust.

If you have questions about adding or changing the trustee of your trust, please give us a call.

Quick Question Corner is a video segment where we answer common questions about estate planning and elder law. If you have similar questions, leave them in the comment section and we can feature them in one of our videos in the future.

Now, this actually asks two separate questions.

The first is if you are named as an executor under a will or if you’re named as a successor trustee under a trust, can you be forced to serve in those roles? And the answer, of course, is no. You are not required to serve as either an executor under a will or a successor trustee under a trust if you do not want to.

The second part of the question is if you are named as a beneficiary under a will or a beneficiary under a trust, are you required to inherit property under those instruments? And the answer, of course, is no. You are not required to accept property from somebody you do not want to. And so you can sign a document called a disclaimer, where you are giving up your interest in the inherited property so that the property technically never even comes into your hands or ownership.

I’m Matthew Crider, and this has been the quick question corner. If you enjoyed this video, please like this page.

Quick Question Corner is a video segment where we answer common questions about estate planning and elder law. If you have similar questions, leave them in the comment section and we can feature them in one of our videos in the future.