How to Avoid PROBATE With a LIVING Trust

A living trust is a legal entity which owns property. When a living trust is created, a trustee is designated by the trust. The trustee is usually the person who originally held the property as an individual and wants to transfer ownership to the living trust. The trustee has complete control of the assets owned by the living trust.

The trust is created to distribute the property it owns easily, privately, quickly and directly to the beneficiaries after the trustee's death.

Most importantly, all assets in a living trust completely avoid the lengthy, costly and frustrating process of probate for your heirs and loved ones.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• See RESOURCES below for an easy online process to create a Living Trust
• See RESOURCES below for an easy online process to transfer real estate into a Living Trust

1. ~ Create the Living Trust Document ~
   
   The living trust document is created by an attorney or online legal service. With the guidance of your legal help, many decisions will be made about your wishes and included in the document.
   
   A few of the important terms to understand include:
   * Grantor ~ This is the person who creates the trust and transfers property to it.
   * Trustee ~ This is the person who controls the property in the trust (often the grantor)
   * Beneficiaries ~ The people or entities who will inherit the property when the trustee dies.

2. ~ Transfer Assets to the Living Trust ~
   
   In order to take advantage of the living trust benefits (mainly to avoid probate), all valuable property must be properly transferred to the living trust. If assets are not transferred, they will have to be probated. Most assets will have to be re-titled to show the legal name of the trust.
   
   Assets to be transferred include:
   
   * Personal Residence (The deed must be transferred and titled in the name of the trust)
   * Investment Real Estate (The deeds must be transferred and titled in the name of the trust)
   * Saving and money market accounts
   * Stocks, bonds and mutual fund accounts
   * Brokerage accounts
   * Precious metals
   * Royalty payments, patents and copyrights
   * Valuable jewelry, antiques, works of art, collections

3. ~ Assets NOT to Transfer to the Living Trust ~
   
   * Personal checking accounts (can be designated Pay-On-Death to avoid probate)
   * Cars
   * IRAs and 401(k)s (direct beneficiaries can be named to avoid probate)
   * Life insurance (the policy names direct beneficiaries and will avoid probate)
   * Personal property of little or no value

4. ~ Keep the Living Trust Document Safe ~
   
   Keep the original Living Trust document in a safe, secure place such as a safety deposit box at a bank. Inform beneficiaries, family members and your attorney of the location of the trust document.

5. Creating a living trust and properly transferring your valuable property to it is an easy strategy to completely avoid the lengthy, costly and frustrating process of probate for your heirs and loved ones.
   
   See "Resources" below for easy online processes to create a Living Trust and to transfer your real estate deed to the trust.

Resources

• Easy ONLINE process to create a Living Trust
• Easy ONLINE process to transfer your Real Estate deeds and titles