Keep Your Family’s Future Secure

What benefits do revocable living trusts provide?

| Apr 3, 2018 | Trusts

During the estate planning process, Palm Beach residents make numerous decisions regarding how to structure their plans. As part of the decision-making process, they may consider drafting and executing revocable living trusts to meet their goals. If you are one of those people, you may wonder what advantages this type of trust could provide you and your family.

Perhaps the most well-known benefit of a revocable living trust is that the assets contained within it do not need to go through probate. This allows your loved ones immediate access to the assets in the trust instead of having to wait until the assets can be distributed at the end of the probate process. In addition, instead of going through the public process, the details of the trust remain private.

A lesser known benefit of having a revocable living trust is how it may serve you should you become incapacitated. Since maintenance of the trust assets is already in progress, if you become unable to make decisions on your own behalf due to an illness or injury, the successor trustee can quickly step in and keep things going without interruption. The trust can continue to serve you even when you cannot serve it. This may also prevent your family from going to court to institute a guardianship, which could be problematic once you recover and regain the ability to make decisions for yourself.

Of course, there are also disadvantages to revocable living trusts that you may want to be aware of prior to deciding whether to include one as part of your estate plan. Understanding the whole picture prior to making any decisions allows you to make informed choices for you and your family. You may find it beneficial to make use of legal resources here in Palm Beach.

Source: thebalance.com, “Pros and Cons of Revocable Living Trusts“, Julie Garber, Accessed on April 1, 2018