In an advance health care directive, you select the person to make health care decisions for you if you’re not able to make those decisions for yourself on a day to day basis.

Is an advance health care directive different from a power of attorney for health care? And the answer is no. An advance health care directive and a power of attorney for health care mean the same thing.

So you name the person to essentially stand in your shoes and talk to the doctor and make ultimate decisions about your health care.

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Now, the law states that a trustee is entitled to reasonable compensation. What reasonable is varies based upon a number of factors having to do with the proposed trustee’s skill level and also the complexity of the trust.

A lot of times the trustee will be paid an hourly rate if the trustee doesn’t have any specific skill or training in the area of finances or trust administration. Typically that hourly rate will range from $25 an hour up to $75 an hour.

If the trustee is a professional, such as a CPA, an enrolled agent, a bookkeeper, an attorney, or even a private professional fiduciary, typically one of those professionals will charge his or her hourly rate.

Now, one other question that people ask is, should they list a specific compensation in the trust? So, for example, should they list a specifically hourly rate in the trust? And I advise not to do that in most cases. The reason that I advise not to do that is because a lot of times people will create their trust and then they might not touch it for many, many years.

We typically try to reach out to our clients once every three years to have a review meeting, but clients, for one reason or the other, will choose not to come into the office, and it might be 5, 10 or even 20 years before a client will meet with us. Now, what happens to the time value of money? Over time, it gets eroded by inflation. And so if you list a specific dollar amount, such as $10 an hour or $25 an hour today, in 15 or 20 years from now, that much money won’t be worth a lot.

If you have any questions about the role of a successor trustee, please click the link below and we’d be happy to schedule a time to talk with you. I’m Matthew Crider, and thank you for watching.

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Well, the first step is you typically call our office and you schedule a right fit meeting with either me or one of our team members. During that right fit meeting, we’ll find out a lot of information about you and your family, and we’ll also find out information about your assets as well as your goals and your objectives.

After the right fit meeting, we’ll schedule the next meeting, which is the design meeting. During the design meeting, we’ll ask you a lot of questions, such as how you want your property to be distributed upon your death, who you want to be in the important roles such as your agent under a power of attorney, your health care decision maker, and the successor trustee of your trust.

After that meeting, we get to work in preparing the documents. Once the documents are prepared, we schedule the next meeting, which is the review meeting. During the review meeting, we go over all of the documents with you to make sure that everything is accurate and the way that you want it to be.

After the review meeting, we will schedule the signing meeting. The signing meeting is where you come into the office and you sign the documents in front of a notary.

So those are the steps to creating your revocable living trust so that you can protect yourself and your loved ones.

If you have questions about a revocable living trust or any estate planning topic, please click the link below and I’d be happy to schedule a time to talk with you. I’m Matthew Crider and thank you for watching.

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A lot of people ask whether they can download a form from the Internet or maybe go to an office supply store and get a piece of software and create their own trust.

The answer is yes, you can do that, but it’s not advisable. And the reason that it’s not advisable is trusts are complex documents. It’s nothing that you would necessarily want to do yourself. It’s similar to putting a roof on your house. You could certainly do it on your own if you have the skill, the knowledge, and the know how and the tools. But unless you have all of those things, it’s likely that the job won’t be well done. The same applies with a trust. You can certainly do it. But what I’ve seen time and time again is that people have DIY trusts that they do on their own, and for some reason the trust fails. Or there’s a controversy about the trust. There’s a dispute about what the trust actually says or what the person’s actual intent was. And it’s not too far of a stretch to say that the road to the courthouse is paved with the paper from trust that people have done on their own.

So while, yes, you can create your own trust, I would not advise that you do so. It’s important to hire a knowledgeable professional to help you, because the stakes are too high. You’re talking about protecting yourself. You’re talking about protecting your loved ones, and you want to make sure that what you have in place will take care of them when the time comes.

If you’d like to schedule a time to talk about whether a revocable living trust is right for you, please click the link below and we’d be happy to schedule up a time to meet. I’m Matthew Crider, and thank you for watching.

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Now this is a detailed question, but I’ll talk about some general categories of assets that should always be put into a revocable living trust.

The first asset that should go into a revocable trust is your real estate. You likely own your own home, and your home should always go into a revocable trust. If you own other real estate, such as a vacation home or rental property, those assets should also go into your revocable trust.

If you have any financial accounts, such as a bank account, a checking account, or what I call a pure investment account where you invest in stocks, bonds, and mutual funds, those financial accounts should also go into your trust.

Generally, retirement accounts do not go into your revocable trust. But that is an area that is extraordinarily complex, and I would recommend that you schedule a time to meet with us to discuss whether your retirement accounts should go in your trust or not.

Now, a lot of people ask about their cars. Should cars go into a trust? We generally advise against cars going into your revocable trust. Now there are two reasons for this. The first reason is the legal reason. You don’t want your car to go into your trust and then potentially have the privacy protections that your trust provides violated if your vehicle is involved in an auto accident. If your vehicle is involved in an auto accident, the injured party could hire a lawyer. The lawyer could sue. They’ll find out that the vehicle is owned by a trust, and then they’ll want a list of every asset that’s owned by the trust. So you don’t want to do that. You don’t want the privacy of your trust to be breached. The second reason is the practical reason. You don’t want to be the person who takes your trust document into the DMV and holds up the line while other people are fuming at you because you’re taking all of the DMV clerk’s time.

If you’d like to schedule a time to talk about whether a revocable living trust is right for you, please click the link below and we’d be happy to schedule up a time to meet.

https://criderlaw.net/contact/