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.

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A revocable living trust works like a bucket. Think of one of those five gallon buckets that you might buy at Home Depot or Ace hardware store. When you create the trust, you create the bucket.

During your lifetime, you are the owner of the bucket and also the manager of the bucket and the assets that are in the bucket. So you could put your assets, your financial accounts and your real estate into the bucket. You can take whatever assets that are in the bucket and take them out of the bucket. You can do whatever you want with the bucket.

When you pass away, you hand the handle to the bucket off to someone else. That person is known as the successor trustee. They are the manager, the business manager of the assets that are in the bucket, and you’ve left them instructions on the outside of the bucket about how you want them to distribute your assets after you pass away.

So essentially, that is how a revocable living trust works. It’s a vehicle to hold your assets both during your lifetime and after you pass away, and then you empower the successor trustee to distribute the assets according to your wishes.

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

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One of the questions I get from people is whether they should set up a revocable living trust. Now, I can’t answer that question for you in a short video on the Internet, but what I can tell you is that over 90% of the people choose to have a revocable living trust as the foundation of their estate plan. It really comes down to two factors, cost and control.

On the first side with cost is people look at the real cost of probate and realize that having a revocable living trust is the less expensive option. It allows them to avoid probate and having their assets go through court, which can take a very long time and is very expensive.

The second thing has to do with control. A lot of people want to be in control of their assets when they pass away and want to decide how those assets will be distributed to their loved ones when they’re deceased. With a revocable living trust, you can do that. You can set out how you want your assets to be distributed, to whom you want your assets to be distributed, and when those assets are distributed.

So for most people, a revocable living trust might make sense. When we meet with individuals and families, we do a deep dive into their financial history and background and find out what their assets are, and more importantly, find out what their goals and objectives are to protect themselves and their loved ones.

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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And the answer is yes, you should do estate planning anytime you change jobs. The reason for this is you will have a change not only in your income and not only in the job that you’re holding, but you will also likely have a change in the retirement benefits and other employment benefits that you will receive through your new employer.

You’ll want to make sure that your beneficiary designations are up to date and current, and you’ll also want to make sure that your beneficiary designations work with your estate plan, if you have one. And if you don’t have an estate plan, you’ll want to establish one so that you can direct who your property goes to. And more importantly, you can create documents that will appoint someone to make financial and healthcare decisions for you if something were to happen to you.

So changing jobs is one of those major life events that would warrant a sit down meeting with an attorney to talk about your estate planning goals, your estate planning objectives, and talk about what’s changed in addition to your new job.

If you have questions about estate planning and would like to discuss this more, please click the link below or contact us through our website. I’m Matthew Crider and thank you for watching.

https://criderlaw.net/contact/