Trusts
What Is a Revocable Living Trust?
A revocable living trust is a set of documents stating who controls your assets while you are alive and what will happen to them when you are gone.
How Is a Revocable Living Trust Different from a Will?
While a will says where you want your assets to go after your death, with a revocable living trust you take the steps while you are alive to sign the title of your property over to the trust for your own use and benefit while you are alive. You also specify in the trust where you want each piece of property to go when you are gone. The property is held in the name of the trust—for you, while you are alive, and for your beneficiaries, after you’re gone. When you die the trust passes your property directly to the people you want to have it. The trust lives on even after you’re gone, carrying out your wishes. Anytime you want to, you can amend the trust, so you can always change your mind about who gets what. Most important, with a trust, there is no probate. The courts are not involved in the transfer of your estate.
Think of a trust as a suitcase, into which you put the title to your house, your stocks, your other investments. With each item you have specified who will own it after you die. You carry the suitcase while you are alive—you’re perfectly free to put new things into it or take anything out—and then it gets handed directly to your beneficiaries upon your death, at which time they can open it and take Out whatever is in it.
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